Jack Bool — Dry Heat
Hailing from the Bay Area, Jack Bool was born and raised in Oakland, California. He studied and received his BFA from California College of the Arts, also known as CCA. These are the historical facts. However, that does little to convey the true magic of his analog photography, which captures the idiosyncratic beauty of life with delicacy and nuance.
In a post on the *Palm Studios, the website of a London-based publisher of photo books, Jack writes “I think of my practice as having two separate but inextricably linked parts – I view myself as a collector, and an associator. As a photographer, I view images as the jumping off point – the place at which meaning starts to emerge. I am drawn to mundane environs, banal contemporary landscapes, places both nauseating and comforting – little pockets of sublime ugly. The camera has an innate ability to elevate that which is overlooked, by photographing these spaces, I declare them important. A personal archive begins to take shape – narrative relationships are created between images and an inkling of a story emerges.”
Much of his early work featured scenes from the neighborhoods around his home town, portraits of friends, or moments captured while out in the city or in nature. However, his roster of commercial clients has now grown to include Apple, Adidas, Ferrari Style, GAP, J. Hannah, Lanvin, Levis, Nike, Stussy, and Vans. He has shot editorial work for Art Basel, Interview, New York Times, WSJ Magazine, and Wired.
Even when he uses additional lighting sources, his work has an unshakable naturalism to it. Partially this is the result of the film that he shoots on, the muted tonality of the colors, the softened edges of the captured forms, and subtle textures in the grain. Part of it is his impeccable framing, lighting, and compositions. He finds metaphors, and little spaces of meaning in visual stories. They are descriptive of that which they portray, and yet there is also a desire for the viewer to sink into each image, as its own individual universe — a whole world in a captured moment, a space for exploration and quiet revelry to wonder and daydream about what else that form is saying, to discover what it holds. The work feels intimate and truthful. It feels honest in a highly refined way, that makes you feel simultaneously at ease and in awe.
