JTF (just the facts): A total of 20 black and white photographs, framed in black and matted, and hung against white walls in the two room gallery space. All of the works are gelatin silver prints, made between 1977 and 2011 (most from the 1970s and 1980s) and printed in 2014. Physical dimensions for each print appear to be roughly 12×8, and each image is available in an edition of 15. This is the first solo show of the photographer’s work outside of Europe. A monograph of the this body of work was published in 2011 by Lannoo Publishers (here). (Installation shots below.)
Comments/Context: Given the immense downstream influence of photographers like August Sander and Diane Arbus, it’s hard to look at the portraits of an artist like the Belgian photographer Jacques Sonck and not see the patterns of a blendered swirl – Sander plus Arbus, with a dash of the formalism of Avedon and Penn for spice. But such a clever hybrid recipe is the kind of lazy thinking that keeps us from really looking, as even though we all may indeed be the sum of our many influences, it’s how we put them together in new ways that ultimately matters. Just because we start with the right ingredients doesn’t mean the dish will be delicious.
Jacques Sonck’s street portraits from the 1970s and 1980s are too consistently engaging to be some kind of derivative copying or homage making. Using pared down framing and generally indistinct backdrops, his pictures eliminate superfluous distractions and bring us into close interaction with his chosen individuals. And in many ways, his genius lies in his choices. Going beyond the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker of Sander and edging toward the marginal characters of Arbus, Sonck has carefully selected a group of quiet eccentrics, each with something curious or special worth noting. He’s charted a middle ground between his influences, cataloguing the extraordinary to be found in the everyday, without leaning too far toward the obvious freaks and outcasts.
Sonck has a delicate touch with his camera, finding a way to highlight real quirkiness without turning to mockery or look here joshing. A pair of girls in matching leather jackets, thigh high boots, and appropriately sized hoop earrings (big for the big girl, small for the small one) could have been a matchty-matchy joke, but in Sonck’s hands, their subtle expressions of put on cool are the discovery. Many of his pairings find this glimmer of the unexpected: cowboys in mirrored sunglasses holding hands tenderly, a trio of freckled schoolboys (one with a gauze eyepatch), sturdy older women in flowered house dresses against the similarly speckled garden hedge, and boys in swimsuits with disapproving expressions. A bug eyed woman in glasses with an oversized angled beret normally would have been extraordinary enough, but the addition of the one-eyed hiding face of her son behind her arm makes the composition even more memorable.
Sonck’s single portraits are often nuanced contradictions – simultaneously categorical types and eccentric individuals. The speedskater in the stars and stripes vest, the tough kid with the mohawk holding a soft serve ice cream cone, the businessman in the trenchcoat cradling a dog in the crook of his arm, the goateed conductor, they’re all not quite what they’re supposed to be – they’ve been cast as one thing but are still exerting their own originality inside that role. Like the portraits of Hiroh Kikai, Sonck’s images capture tiny deviations from societal norms, each one an example of authentic personality sneaking through the cracks.
Seen together, Sonck’s work is the opposite of a systematic typological gathering of humanity, and instead celebrates the easygoing joy of accepting and inclusive individuality. It seems the streets of Ghent and Antwerp are just as full of overlooked characters as anywhere else, and Sonck’s portraits capture that uniqueness with fond devotion.
Collector’s POV: The modern prints in this show are priced at $1400 each. Sonck’s work has little secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the best option for those collectors interested in following up.
