17 Samples of Young Men From Jeremy Kost's New Book of Polaroids
| 12/03/18
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There is an illicit nature to the Polaroid. Jeremy Kost takes advantage of that.
Polaoid instant photos were the funky half step between traditional 35 mm photography and the digital excesses of today. Finally the shackles of censorship were broken allowing the amateur pornographer to take a few nude pictures of his wife, his friends, his dorm mate in college. Do remember that at one time it was a federal crime to take a nude photo of someone without "socially redeeming value" (to be determined by a court.) In fact an early model of the Polaroid camera was called a "Swinger." Get it?
Jeremy Kost accidentally on purpose triggers the collective memory of a generation of people who took the first home made sex photos with a new, 1960s freedom. Even now, for men of a certain age, if a Polaroid is happened upon in an old desk, shoebox, or sock drawer, there is an electric flicker of hope that the image will be personal and revealing in a way that photos sent to a developer can never be.
To further the sense of found treasure, Kost embellishes his Polaroids with splashes of paint that look as if the coveted photo was smeared by accident somewhere in the secret stashing process. Rather than guilding the lily, the result is a nostalgic relic turned into an objet d'art.
With over sixty models photographed between 2008 and 2018, captured on two hundred unique Polaroids and enhanced with oil paint, Kost celebrates uncensored male beauty with his new book, Isolated But Not Alone.
The multi-media artist, who has gained a substantial Instagram following over the past years, has been using his social media platform to connect with his audience. Because he maintains a rule that the uncensored images are never shared online in any form, he felt that the time was right to share for a new book, specifically one focusing on a new body of work made in secret over the last year.
Isolated But Not Alone comes four years after Fractured, Kost's first book dedicated to his work with men that coincided with a rise to relative insta-fame. A lot has changed in the meantime. The end result is both a direct comment to, and somewhat in contrast with, the current social climate. While the stereotypically beautiful men photographed in natural landscapes exude a sense of eroticism, fetish, and seduction, the artist is able to evoke a dreamy air and transform the Polaroids into textured works of layered art.
"In a time where digital media is all about high contrast and punch, here the paint becomes that, while the Polaroid stays soft and intimate. I want these works to convey the intimacy of the photograph, obscuring and addressing the surface while maintaining the vulnerability of that moment. The colors I choose for each Polaroid play an important role in this" says Kost. "Rather than disguise or obscure, paint brings both the figure and landscape of the original image into sharper relief, pushing the idea of figure twice over."
In addition, the book contains a poem by American actor and poet Nico Tortorella and a conversation with Drew Sawyer, photo curator at the Brooklyn Museum. Isolated But Not Alone is a great collectible for fans of Kost's work and an illuminating introduction to his work for new audiences.
A quote from Kost's conversation with Drew Sawyer in the book helps give this fairly nostalgic book some context:
"There definitely is a type of guy that I shoot, isn't there? ... I grew up in Kingwood, Texas, a super-overweight, super-closeted, but very loved kid. I was even in denial to myself about my sexuality. The subjects I cast tend to be an archetype of the boy that I secretly grew up lusting after during this phase of my life in Texas. Additionally, there were very few people of color in my graduating class in high school and very few at SMU, where I went for college. In recent years, I realize that I've missed the mark in terms of diversity and that, as my social media audience grows, I have a debt of responsibility to be inclusive. People should feel like they are represented."
A presentation of work from the new book, along with other works selected to benefit ACRIA, will run from December 4 - 9 during Art Basel at the UNTITLED Art Fair on the beach.
Isolated But Not Alone is exclusively available on www.jeremykost.com and Amazon.com on December 4, 2018 for a pre-sales price of $70 USD until December 17, and $75 USD after.
Jeremy Kost has been a chronicler of gender, sexuality, and nightlife for more than 15 years. Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, he now lives and works between Los Angeles and New York City. Traveling the world to make images, whether they're of male models in the Californian desert or drag queens strutting through Pittsburgh, is a nonstop pursuit.
Kost is strongly influenced by Warhol in both his choice of subjects and technique. Extending the creative potential of Warhol's favorite tools, Kost makes use of the Polaroid camera, silkscreen processes, and textured paintwork. He might embellish his Polaroids with oil paint, use them as the basis for silkscreen paintings, or amass them together in elaborate, multilayered photo-collages.
Kost's work is included in multiple private and public collections across the internationally, including LACMA, Museo Jumex, MoCA Los Angeles, MFA Houston, The Studio Museum Harlem, The Nerman Museum, and many more. He has exhibited worldwide, including solo exhibitions at The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Galerie Nuke, Paris; and Galerie Charlotte Moser in Geneva. His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including "State of the Art - New Contemporary Photography", NRW Forum, Dusseldorf, Germany; "Dress Codes", International Center of Photography Triennial of Photography and Video, New York, NY; and many others.
His bibliography includes It's Always Darkest Before Dawn, a monograph published (2011) by powerHouse; Fractured, published by Damiani (2014); and Like One Of Your French Girls, his first self published effort (2017). This winter, Kost is publishing the aforementioned Isolated But Not Alone, his first monograph of work with men in more than four years,.
