Book of the Week: A Pick by Christian Michael Filardo

Book of the Week Book of the Week: A Pick by Christian Michael Filardo Christian Michael Filardo selects Jump Into The Fire by Evan Jenkins as Book of the Week.

Jump Into The Fire. By Evan Jenkins.. Self-published, 2016.

Christian Michael Filardo selects Jump Into The Fire self-published by Evan Jenkins as Book of the Week.

"Often when we daydream the most profound moments occur while our eyes are glazed over. Lost in thought, we awaken from our time-lapse to find ourselves gazing into the depths of a mundane artifact, a ceramic goblin, a red rock, a bag of packing peanuts. In Jump Into The Fire by Evan Jenkins we live a daydream that feels young, rebellious and clever.

While it is apparent that Jenkins desires to weave some narrative into Jump Into The Fire, I find myself more invested in the individual photographs. Often color focused and flashed out Jenkins’ photographs can make even the most banal subjects come to life.

Subtle in its beauty, I find myself lost in Jump Into The Fire’s images: a synthetic glass display filled with false diamonds, a smashed red wall, a television with the caption “#DogThanking” in its lower right hand corner. Life is Jenkins’ amusement park and the speed of his ride is apparent in his photographs. This energy makes Jump Into The Fire feel extremely purposeful and contemporary. We are hurled so far into Jenkins’ photographic practice that we can see the way he works. I imagine that where Jenkins goes his camera goes and to me that’s extremely exciting.

Ultimately, Jump Into The Fire feels like the first triumph for Jenkins, leaving me eager to see what he comes up with next." —Christian Michael Filardo

Purchase Book

Jump Into The Fire. By Evan Jenkins.. Self-published, 2016.

Jump Into The Fire. By Evan Jenkins.. Self-published, 2016.

Christian Michael Filardo is a photographer and composer living and working in Santa Fe, NM. Filardo has worked for VICE Magazine, Believer Magazine, the Phoenix New Times, and is the shipping manager at photo-eye Bookstore. He is a recent recipient of an honorarium in new music from Oberlin College’s Modern Music Guild. Filardo’s first book, Say My Last Name Softly, a collaboration with Marie Claire Bryant, was released in April 2016 on Holy Page Records.


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