ENCOUNTERS, photography book

ENCOUNTERS by Patrick Stull

Title: ENCOUNTERS
Author: Patrick Stull
Publisher: Independent
Pages: 250
Genre: Fine Art Photography Book

With photography at its base, Stull offers a nuanced explication of his encounters to allow the viewer an opportunity to form a relationship with his art. While looking within ourselves, exploring our own feelings, he hopes that he will inspire greater humaneness in response to his art.

ENCOUNTERS is the second in a series of six large-format books in which artist, photographer and author, Patrick Stull explores a wide range of experiences. Using light and the physical body, the written word and his artistry he creates imagery that examines aspects of the lives of women.

Compiled over the last 18 years, the images in ENCOUNTERS, Stull says, are meant to “inspire and challenge the observer while always empowering the subject.”

Stull brings a powerful sense of the surreal and the spiritual to his work as he plots a course along the many paths of the human experience. His imagery runs from the ghostly and ephemeral to the flowing and fiery.

As much as he concentrates on the human form, Stull never forgets to focus on the humanity of his subjects. His choice of the coffee-table style book format draws the viewer into an experience both intimate and universal.

Stull’s first book in his series, titled EVOLVE, was published in 2006. A third book, titled HIDDEN DIMENSIONS, is completed and awaiting publication. Future titles in the series include DHARMA, BEING DIFFERENT, and YOGA, A HEALING MOMENT.

Stull hopes that his readers come away from the book with “a love for art and a respect for the female who gives us life and challenges us to be better human beings.

My Thoughts on Encounters

There were things I liked about this book and things I didn't care for.

I liked much of the photography. Patrick Stull photographs the human form and face beautifully. I love the pictures of faces, of the timeless grace and strength of dancers, and the elegant lines of a musician with her violin propped on her knee. I love the photograph of another musician with an instrument I can't name. Some photographs have beautiful editing that create the effect of a paint, almost as if we are looking through a misty veil of time.

I liked section 13, Art and Photography, in which Mr. Stull edits photography into abstract colors and shapes.

His opening photograph in Generations is most certainly a framed work over someone's mantel, of daughter, mother, and grandmother, all dressed in black. It's beautiful and timeless.

I liked the artwork in section 4, A Different Kind of Rain, which features 'rain' upon the models being photographed. The result is unique and striking.

What I didn't care for in Encounters was much of the commentary. Ross Tarry, friend and author, often says in his writing critiques: Trust your Reader.

Trust them to be intelligent.  Don't over-explain.

As musician and writer both, I agree. The 1812 Overture, Peter and the Wolf, so many other great pieces--have program notes explaining basics (Russia's victory over Napoleon; Peter's victory over the wolf in which each character has a theme played by a particular instrument) The program notes don't tell us what to think: of Russia, Napoleon, or the politics of the era.

Part of the joy of art is that it lets individuals find their own nuances, beauty, ideas, and meaning. We bring our own lives and experiences to art. We can like it or not like it. We have our own tastes and that's our right.

As I read the 'program notes' on the photography, I felt I was not trusted, as a viewer, to see, enjoy, respond, and feel; to like some pieces better than others and think for myself why that might be; but was told what I should see and moreover was told that if a viewer does not like piece of art, it is a flaw within the viewer. 

In Section 1, Primal Being, for instance, the reader is told 'Discard your prejudices.' Why would an author assume a reader has prejudices? Why would an artist suggest that one could only dislike a work because of 'prejudice?' Would we tell someone they are 'prejudiced' if they don't like ukulele or Gregorian chant or historical romance novels? Or would we say--meh, not their cup of tea and that's okay?

This feels like a bit of a rigged game: like my art, or you're bad.

The truth is, we all have our taste in art. Some people love big band, some people love Nine Inch Nails. We can discuss why we like or dislike. We can enjoy the discussion and learn and grow from it. Starting from assumptions of negative characters flaws closes those doors and potentially enriching, fruitful conversations--and even friendships.

To sum up: I found beautiful photography in this book. I appreciated the photographer's use of light, effects, form, composition, and more. As a would-be photographer myself, I particularly appreciate much of his work and looked for things I can emulate or work on in my own photography. If I were in charge of a revision, I would tell Mr. Stull to let his photography speak for itself.

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Encounters is a collection of imagery created and compiled over the last 15 years to inspire and challenge the observer while always empowering the subject. The imagery is coupled with text, odes and perspectives about the human experience and existence itself. The imagery is mostly an explication, an intimate view of the lives of women and our relationship to them – on an individual and cultural level. However, there are images of men included in this work. A portion of the portfolio presents something more than a photographic image. Here the imagery is developed into contemplative art pieces of the surreal genre, where the viewer is transported into the depths of their own psyche challenging them to see something new.

 

American artist Patrick Stull has spent the last eighteen years mostly creating imagery about the lives of women. He searches for what lies beneath the surface of his subjects, empowering each one he encounters. He has recently ventured into the realm of surrealism, creating powerful imagery that reflects on our humanity while dealing with the meaning and power of art.

Stull say's, "My work has allowed me to venture past the camera into the realm of a humanist, an artistic life, delving into the intellectual, a more cerebral life experience, creating what I call 'connectivism.'"  

His ongoing work is based in large-scale digital photography accompanied by sculpture/body casts, composition art, painting, poetry/prose and drawings.  His art is then integrated, collectively, into exhibitions to provide the viewer a once in a lifetime experience. The presentation of the work is delivered to the viewer in a unique and emotionally powerful way. 

Stull, 71, a self-taught artist, works in many artistic disciplines. Educated at San Diego State University with degrees in psychology, economics and philosophy during the 1960’s, amidst the backdrop of the counter-culture revolution and the Viet Nam War, where his social consciousness and political views were shaped. Stull emerged from a Catholic Irish/German family, one of five children where work, discipline and religion took precedence over emotional expressions of the self – a different kind of loving environment. Being a husband of thirty-plus years and father to two has taught him the power of kindness, love and commitment. 

His latest book is the fine art photography book, Encounters.

 

Visit his website at www.patrickstull.com.

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