Genitempo’s images, inspired by a poetic Southern Gothic- meets-Walker Evans sense of the American landscape, introduce the viewers to a handful of isolated characters and deep, woodsy scenes from the Ozark mountains. The work included in his series, Jasper, focuses on a number of concrete details rendered in crisp black-and-white- the gleam of a pocket knife used to pry the dirt out from under someone’s finger nails; the ghostly outline of a cat or other creature caught in the morning fog. The accumulation of these scenes compellingly evoke a particular slice of contemporary Americana.

– Lesley A. Martin Juror, Hariban Award 2018

Artist Statement

pines grow pulling the old dreams through the soil pinesap climbing into its limbs lifting a ladder like solitude

Inspired by the life and work of the poet and land surveyor, Frank Stanford, these photographs of hermetic homes and men living in solitude were taken in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas and Missouri.

By capturing the foggy landscapes, cluttered interiors, and rugged men that are tucked away in the dark woods, Jasper explores a fascination with running away from the everyday. The work bounces between fact and fiction, exhibiting the reality and myth of what it means to be truly apart from society.

Bio

Matthew Genitempo (Houston, Texas, 1983) is an American photographer currently living and making work in Marfa Texas. He received his MFA in photography from the University of Hartford. His most recent project, Jasper, focuses on the men that have chosen to live a life sequestered in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas and Missouri. By capturing the foggy landscapes, cluttered interiors, and the rugged men that are tucked away in the dark woods, the project explores his fascination with running away from the every day. The project bounces between fact and fiction, exhibiting the reality and myths of what it means to be truly apart from society. A book of the complete work is available from Twin Palms Publishers.