ALLZAH: ART

Artist Profile
Photographer Nicholas Syracuse

The first thing that caught our attention was the music. Somewhere between the giant steel dragon and the blood red room at the Art-o-Matic show in Southwest DC last autumn there was the sound of human voices and simple instruments, and Heather and I followed it to a remote chunk of wall space with some quiet black and white photographs. Quiet, until you looked closely at the faces and the atmosphere of the images. There was a distinct, very human energy emerging from these photographs, and in concert with the rhythmic singing they created a sense of timelessness, of many human lives over many generations.

"Black Dog, New Mexico, 1998" “Syracuse suddenly sees something—a piece of plastic by the road, a dog running by—and he shoots by instinct.”

Presented traditionally, almost classically, Nicholas Syracuse’s photographs were shot with the same materials many serious photographers use—mostly Fuji and Kodak 400 speed black and white film with a medium-format camera—yet his images were anything but ordinary. Faces that beamed, glowered, or just confronted the camera with honesty; inanimate objects imbued with a palpable life force; a bolt of lighting pulsing against a sky as black as doom—these were moments of truth, seized by a photographer who was completely open to the energies around him.

"Kingman, Arizona 1999"

Heather and I met Nicholas Syracuse at a coffee and bake shop in Waldorf. A tall, charming young man with the unmistakable air of an artistic spirit, he was full of enthusiasm for his latest projects and forthright about his methods and his experiences traveling, meeting people, and making photographs of them. Syracuse was born to roam the world—he had just returned from New Orleans and was already looking forward to his next road trip. His largest series of photographs is his ongoing American Road project, with photographs from Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, Texas, South Carolina, Indiana, and many points in between. The music that was playing at the Art-o-Matic display, put together for the show by Syracuse and DJ Zhyin, is something Syracuse wants to incorporate into a traveling multi-sensory exhibition—photography and text within a soundscape that includes trains, birds, surf, street musicians and other sounds recorded on his travels. He has just secured permission to collaborate with musician Bobby BeauSoleil to produce a more substantial acoustic component. Syracuse sees the music and imagery as reinforcing each other to make the experience of the road more visceral.

Born in Arizona and raised in the DC area, Syracuse attended photography classes at NOVA Community College in Alexandria and the Corcoran School of Art in DC. He was strongly influenced by an intensive photojournalism course taught by Pulitzer Prize winner Jerry Gay at the Northwest Photographic Center in Seattle. Besides Art-o-Matic, Syracuse has exhibited at the Washington Center of Photography and other galleries there and in New Orleans. He’s photographed musicians for both RCA and MetalBlade Records, and did video work for HR (Paul “Hunting Rod” Hudson), formerly the front man for the seminal DC punk band Bad Brains. Four images from the American Road series—67 Years Old, San Francisco; Mechanic, Terre Haute, Indiana; Tobacco Field, Tennessee; and Kingman, Arizona—were recently published in George Washington University’s GW Review.

Syracuse has almost a sixth sense about the life going on around him. He suddenly sees something—a piece of plastic by the road, a dog running by—and he shoots by instinct. Often that impromptu shot reveals unexpected layers of meaning. Possibly his most recognizable photograph,

Syracuse’s portrait of a woman in a Tennessee tobacco field is the epitome of this. She is surrounded by huge leaves, wiping the sweat of the soil from her face with the tail of her t-shirt and momentarily revealing deep cleavage in a black lace bra. This fieldworker is also a sensuous and alluring woman. Like so much of the world, she has an un-guessed-at complexity lurking just below the surface. And like so many of Syracuse’s images, this one was unplanned—another moment when a deeper truth revealed itself and the photographer was tuned in enough to catch it.

"Sonny Barger, Hell's Angel Phoenix Arizona, 2002"

Syracuse clearly has an attraction to strong personalities, and records some of the lesser seen corners of the country in the faces of people far removed from squeaky-clean suburbia. He is particularly proud of having been able to capture a portrait of Hell’s Angels leader Sonny Barger riding his motorcycle—honored, really, that Barger allowed him the chance. And Syracuse didn’t waste the opportunity: the character of the man—the miles he’s seen—radiate from the image. It’s not hard to understand why people let Syracuse photograph them. He has an almost mystic calmness and projects an open, non-judgmental energy. His mission is not to assess the world or to speak for it, but to discover it. For Syracuse, “being on the road is a state of mind, freeing my senses and opening my mind to a broader perception.” Living in that broader perception, he waits for the impulse to shoot—and sometimes even he is surprised by the sliver of truth that emerges in the print.

To see more of Nick's work visit his website at www.roadphoto.com