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18/6/2014

John R. Pepper

Rosphoto State Russian Center for Photography, St. Petersburg

Evaporations, the personal exhibition of photographer John R. Pepper, comprises 37 artworks, created in 2012 and 2013. The display is dedicated to the life of people au bord de la mer and explores the relationships between a man and the waters. The featured photographs have been taken at the seaside in different parts of the world: in Naples, Thessaloniki, Chicago, New York, Geneva and Saint Petersburg.

John Pepper believes that a man can feel really and absolutely free only when being face to face with the world of waters. Water is a primary element, and it symbolizes power and eternity, inspires to physical and spiritual self-perfecting. In Pepper’s works a human figure seems very small compared to the vast expanse of water, but still it remains the central part of the composition and the key subject of any landscape.

You won’t find serene and peaceful images depicting a family holiday at a sunny resort at the exhibition. Pepper intentionally shoots in black and white, as “choosing black and white we choose no colour, because colour is a powerful element itself, and is known to ‘steal energy’ from a true picture,” says the photographer.

New York was shot in black and white by Pepper to show dramatic effects of Hurricane Sandy: a cordoned off area of Coney Island, a deserted alley of an amusement park. Unlike cliched tourist photographs, the Barcelona series speaks of loneliness and alienation of its residents strolling at the edge of the sea under the scorching sun. The visitors to the exhibition will see the familiar coast of the Gulf of Finland and the beachgoers as if captured in a space where time has stopped.

John Pepper strives to conquer the laws of time and space and does his best to focus on a person’s everyday life. The artist’s dominant idea is a life story of a common man, human frailty and imperfection. Pepper believes that the mystery of beauty lies in man’s flaws and in his ability to rebirth after the most dramatic failures.

John Randolph Pepper is an Italian photographer, screenwriter, theatre and film director. He was born in Rome in 1958 to Curtis Bill Pepper, photojournalist and the head of the Rome bureau for Newsweek magazine. John made his first steps as a photographer at the age of 11. At that time he was greatly influenced by such renowned photographers as Cartier-Bresson, Sam Shaw, John Ross and David Seymore, close friends of his parents. At the age of 13 John became an apprentice to Ugo Mulas, the living legend of street photography. Pepper studied History of Art at Princeton University (1976) and then collaborated with the American Film Institute, Los Angeles. Later he worked as a photographer, theater and film director and producer for New York theater: Cubistique by Tom Cohen, The Cruelties of Mrs. Schnayd by David Suesdhorf. Pepper’s exhibitions are regularly held in Italy, France, Russia and the USA. In 2009 with the support of the American Academy in Rome Pepper launched the photo project Sans Papier, with subsequent exhibits in Rome, Venice, Saint Petersburg and Paris. In 2014 the Instituto Superiore Per la Storia della Fotografia (Italy) published a book of his photographs. In 2015 Evaporations will be displayed at the 56th Venice Biennale.

Opening: June 19, 6 p.m.

The State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSPHOTO
35, Bolshaya Morskaya Str., Courtyard Exhibition Hall, 2nd floor
open daily, 11 - 19

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