photo-eye | BLOG: Thomas Jackson – Behind the Image: Tutus no. 4

by Juliane Worthington

Thomas Jackson, Tutus no. 4, San Francisco, California, 2018 Archival Pigment Print, 20x25" Image, Edition of 4, $2500

Whether it’s straws, translucent plastic plates, or rainbow colored tutus, Thomas Jackson’s intent is to confuse our senses by making objects appear in mid-air in scenes we would never expect to encounter them.

I asked him how he imagines and executes these images without the use of photomontage. Jackson says he begins by finding something everyone can relate to, “I love how the tutus are something we’ve all encountered in some way. For me, it’s a reminder of my daughter’s whimsical, childhood days.” His happiness comes when he can juxtapose an ordinary object into an extraordinary scene.

Represented artist Thomas Jackson stages over 200 tutus on a seaside cliff in San Francisco in preparation

for his image Tutus no. 4.

“I scouted out the location and fell in love with the vast, rugged cliffs, covered in ice plant,” Jackson remembers. He went on to recall the challenge of getting all his equipment and supplies out to such a remote location. Listening to him describe his process, I could hear how much he loves the puzzle of figuring out how to execute his idea as much as the result. With the help of his assistant, and after a lot of factoring and trial and error, Jackson staged the hillside with over two hundred multi-colored tutus zip-tied to thin, green, wooden garden stakes. The effect was, to Jackson’s delight, a way to “see the wind.”

Jackson’s message with his work, like Tutus no. 4, is to make us feel disoriented, confused and even a little unnerved by seeing normal, everyday objects in unusual places. He feels these images make our brains sort of jump out of our thinking ruts and really take a look at the elements of our world. In this photograph, the tutus become a voice for the wind, a way for us to see how playful the Earth is, even on the remote cliffs of Northern California.

Thomas Jackson – Straws no. 4, Mono Lake, California, 2015,
Archival Pigment Print, 30x38" Image, Edition of 5, $4000

Currently, Jackson’s Straws no. 4, Mono Lake, California, 2015 is on view at photo-eye Gallery in our 2019 Group Show.

» View the 2019 Group Show

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Thomas Jackson

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Thomas Jackson

Jackson is also releasing two new images this week, Kool-Aid no. 1, Muir Beach, California, 2018 and Kool-Aid no. 2, Montara, California, 2018.