Jason Langer’s Twenty Years pursues a solitary journey through the nocturnal streets and dimly lit rooms of a dream like world. Spanning 20 years of his career, this aptly titled book is the first survey of Langer’s work. Included are many previously unpublished images, surrealist experimentation and figure studies, as well as his singular investigation of the city of Berlin. Langer’s photographic language has been variously described as cinematic and poetic, haunting and romantic. Best known for his noir visions of contemporary urban life, Langer has photographed not only some of the world’s great cities, but intimate scenes as well, ranging from male and female nudes to inanimate objects captured in moments of lifelike feeling. Langer’s beautifully crafted images, rich with lush, black tones, strive to always capture the unanticipated or chance moment, layered with timeless drama and dynamism.
As Julia Dolan states in her essay, “Langer pushes us, through the beauty of well-crafted imagery, to tangle with the tension that builds between life and death, and between an artist and his medium.”
“For many years I created and recreated the same photograph. It was, frankly, a compulsion, one rooted in a dissatisfaction with the world as I felt it to be and a deep feeling that there’s something more hiding before us in plain sight. This compulsion sent me exploring, often at night and sometimes at personal risk, along many hundreds of miles of city streets as well as inside the homes of acquaintances and strangers. Maybe it is that at the end of the day most people are winding down and become more self reflective. Maybe it is the introspection that comes naturally as the sun goes down. During these last 20 years I was particularly sensitive to the thoughts and feelings associated with this time of day, and with the nighttime, which easily brings mischief and our more primal natures.
When I look back on the last two decades of my photography what I see is an experience that mirrors the solitariness of my wanderings. The feeling I was only half conscious of at the time is that the truest, most authentic self is only revealed in isolation. For me, the social self is a mask. The photographs collected here are, simply put, a record of my attempt to penetrate the mask and expose some glimmer of the mystery beneath.”
– Jason Langer, May 2015
Group Exhibition: Atlàntica Colectivas, Fotonoviembre, International Photography Biennial, Tenerife
Organized by the Centro De Fotografía Isla De Tenerife Fotonoviembre 2015 is the 13th edition of this international photo biennial held in Tenerife in November-December 2015. Jason Langer will present a selection of images from Twenty Years.
For more information, please visit fotonoviembre.org
BOOK
Twenty Years
Photographs by Jason Langer
Publisher: Radius Books
Summer 2015
Hardbound with jacket
12.5 x 11.5 inches / 31.75 x 29.21 cm
172 pages | Price $55
http://radiusbooks.org
http://www.jasonlanger.com
EVENTS
Book signings
Radius Books Biennial Artists Weekend
September 19, 2015
Santa Fe, NM
http://radiusbooks.org
Charles A. Hartman Fine Art gallery
September 26, 2015, 3:30-5:30pm
Portland, OR
www.hartmanfineart.net
