Jack Montgomery- passion and courage
No wonder Jack Montgomery writes on his website that he greatly admires F. Holland Day. And I’ll bet he’s sneaked more than one peak at Diane Arbus’ work, and spent some time with Sally Mann’s.
Nude Youth Playing the Pipe (1910) • F. Holland Day
But when you review Jack’s website there is no doubt the work is all his. He has two major portfolios featured on the site: Genderwork, and Coming of age at the turn of the century. Frankly, there are many, many phenomenal images there.
But let’s step back. In 2008, Susan Maasch Fine Art in Portland included Jack’s work in a show titled “Gender Through the Artist’s Eyes”. I hadn’t met Jack yet, but had heard about him – “local attorney making REALLY weird photographs, etc…” and the gallery was crowded at the opening night we attended. But I saw something incredible there that night – one of the most poignant, tender portraits I had ever seen, and I don’t say that lightly. It has haunted me ever since.
Cindy 2004, Boston © 2004 Jack Montgomery. All rights reserved.
Yep, it’s a guy in that vinyl dress. But as I studied this photograph I felt that all of mankind’s struggles through the ages were summed up here, in this one image. At the same time, I was stunned by the artist’s success in capturing this one person’s own deeply and quite painfully personal story. A perfect and powerful photograph that needed no written support or explanation (people: STOP writing about your photographs, please!). This photograph writes its own book.
When I ran into Jack last week during First Friday at Susan Maasch Fine Art, I was delighted to hear he has a show opening there in April. He’s working on a nearly complete video. He’s a busy man: he’s on the board of Maine Media Workshops, and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts. He also serves the Portland Museum of Art as a member of the Photography Advisory Committee. Did I mention he’s an attorney (Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson)? But he very obviously goes somewhere deeply aesthetic and far away from all of this when he’s taking pictures.
I loved reading about Jack’s childhood in his artist’s statement – how his mother wove her family history for him in a hardscrabble tapestry. The Arthur Schopenhauer quote- “And so it is that in our childhood years the foundation is laid of our later view of the world, and there with as well of its superficiality or depth: it will be in later years unfolded and fulfilled, not essentially changed.“ supports Jack’s strong sense of time and place that very clearly influences his work, especially the new series Coming of age at the turn of the century.
Rosie and Jay © Jack Montgomery. All rights reserved.
Molly and Lucky © Jack Montgomery. All rights reserved.
Katie in the Pond © Jack Montgomer. All rights reserved.
Sebastian at Morse Mountain Beach © Jack Montgomery
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It just about kills me not to reproduce every image on Jack’s website here in this blog posting, but that’s a good problem. Log on to his website and take the time to thoughtfully review the two collections. It will be the most rewarding thing you do this week.
