Jay Shoots’ selects common utilitarian tools, simplifies still life compositions and presents them as monumental photo-sculpture. The tonal and textural richness of the surfaces sharply contrasted with the deep black backgrounds (like Caravaggio's tenebrism). His images feature the contrast and rich tonal scale that draw many to modern black and white photography. Jay's images present photographic details beyond what the eyes normally perceive. These tactile images are so “visually felt” that the eyes can fell the surfaces, as if touching with your hands. Those who have studied art history can recall the admiration of the Italian Early Renaissance painters for their northern European counterparts (the Late Gothic Flemish painters) whose oil painting techniques incorporated extraordinary details or "realism of particulars." Jay has chosen a film, camera, lighting and paper that reveal remarkable realistic details.
Conceptually, the images present a nostalgic look at objects that are disappearing from our homes and beginning to appear in regional museums. "By combining traditional photographic techniques with documentary, formal and conceptual concerns, I am attempting to create photographs of utilitarian objects that transcend the realm of the purely descriptive. My hope is to transform these artifacts into visual symbols that pay homage to our ancestors work ethic, heritage and spirit," writes Jay W. Shoots.
Shoots’ tools are fabricated from materials that seem as close to Iron Age artifacts as they are to 21st century tools; plastics are familiar materials today. Although his artifacts may seem archaic, one must respect their practical application of simple technologies still used today; and appreciate the elegant designs, sturdiness, longevity and the weight and feel of these wood and metal objects. Shoots’ still life objects summon memories of our grandparents or parents tools that some of us (born before the 60s) may recall from our early childhood. Photography is experiencing the same technological revolution - new digital imaging processes are rapidly replacing traditional cameras and photographic materials that were made of paper, gelatin and silver.
Jay Shoots was born in Winter Park, Florida, 1957 and grew up in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. He studied at the New England School of Photography, Boston, Mass and enlisted as a U.S. Navy photographer in 1977, where he refined his craft. While in the Navy, he received a sabbatical to study photojournalism at Syracuse University with Arthur Rothstein, a noted documentary photographer. After completing his service in the Navy, he moved to Atlantic Beach, Florida, where he currently resides with his wife, Linda Broadfoot (a noted photographer) and Emma, their daughter. His photographs are in the collections of the Espace Photographie De Paris; the Institute for Cultural Exchange, Tubingen, Germany; Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, Florida; and St. Petersburg Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida. Shoots is represented by The Sears-Peyton Gallery, New York, New York and Basetti Fine Art Photography, New Orleans, Louisiana.