Here is a write-up by Kyle Heinly
Right now as I type this. I just want you to know that what I type I know firsthand is all. I am sitting in a gallery room at The Off Center Art Center. Just one of the places John Sluder displays his work at. He also curated the current show with his eyes that are photographic lenses to the soul but I am getting ahead of myself. For this particular show which was the goal to express fears, phobias, and dread I believe he knows all these quite well. I would imagine as the photographer you’d deal with the model’s own as well as yours in the process. That rapport is what comes across in the 9 pieces he chose for himself. Of the ones portraying people, models yes, but the comfort in which they all appear is real so they show not the pretentiousness seen in many photographic displays but the fragility, and the power within each one that lives when they trust the lens that is being put on them in such a way as to receive as much as their willing to give to it. 4 of them involving the idea of subtle power, or overt that would cause fear in any one who has a repressed vision of what women should be like, and 1 of which shows a woman tied in rope laying on a couch with a shoed foot is my particular favorite as when you look at her face you know she knows she’s in control which is just one of the examples where John has done a provocative photo that doesn’t take the soul away from the situation but tells a story. It is also the one that most men fear most, and most women love. It just shows you the poetic way that love, sensuality, and sexuality is still a fear for mankind. The last few that he gave to this show are of places where the souls have left an impact which he then captures evoking a haunting feeling in the gut. For example walls in Nuremberg that have known many that have walked on it’s streets but he has somehow captured it devoid of people showing it’s true beauty. Yet there is another one where it is a picture involving women in white costume dancing with wild abandon in a forest outside Frankfurt, and with one look what goes through the mind is one of loss but also hope in one glance.
What I am trying to say is that John Sluder takes a photo like an artist paints a painting whenever possible to capture it’s purity, and truth. Underneath both of those goals of the human spirit lies fear which makes the point that he had this all in his head from the beginning, knows it, accepts it, that is why he makes it easy for him to work with, to be in awe of his photos, and what keeps him provocative even in these rather overwhelming times where social media abounds rather taking the anachronistic approach showing you what you need to see. A artistic journalist who inspires thought offers Photo Booth Hire in Surrey.
Kyle Heinly
Owner of Off Center Art Center