Artist Statement

Photographing the Art of Dance
By Tim Thomas

Is it a painting, sculpture, photograph, dance, or piece of music that moves the heart? Or is it an enigmatic code within the art? I believe there is a code, unknown to us, inherent within genres of art, that capture one’s attention. In any given art, one person is captivated and penetrated by its code, while another person is unmoved. This encrypted code glides effortlessly through the barrier of the rational mind, like a spring breeze through a screen. It moves through the viewer’s subconscious mind, a welcome presence, granting momentary relief for the solitary emotional captives that lie chained, yet still breathing, in deep recesses of the mystifying place. Art in its myriad forms, becomes a transport for outsiders who are denied access to these buried emotions by the thinking mind.

Tango penetrates the sub terrain of the thinking mind. The melancholic mourning of the bandoneon, played by the old man in the shadows, who has seen and forgotten more than we will ever know, foreshadows the drama of life as it will be enacted by intermingling bodies on the dance floor. The orchestra’s pulsating tempos, staccato, and syncopation, puncutate a movement reflective of intense passion, attraction, dismissal, anger, heartbreak, and reunion. The crescendo of innuendo, in a swelling surge of soaring music, lyricism, and skillfully orchestrated movement of dancers, is a knife of fire that slashes the subconscious gate keeper, and tantalizes primal memories, urges and fears. The fevered responses of so many people, through out the world, to this dance indicate the presence of a deep mystery worthy of attention, by plumbing the depths of body language spoken in the dance.

Tracery of Passion is more than a posing gallery for my photoshoots. It is a study of innuendo in relationship. The photography was executed with the same precision required in the cockpit of an airliner, or on the dance floor. As dance artists must subtly adjust their balance, and body line to articulate a prescribed movement, so too, was the process in creating these images.

Most of the poses were photographed an average of five to ten times in effort to capture innuendo. After each shot, I studied the pose for the slightest of head tilt, arm, hand, and leg position. At times the stiletto heel was partially obscured by a leg, while other times, one of my lights would not be properly positioned to illuminate each aspect of the pose. Most fashion photography is done with two light sources. This studio setup required the excruciating management of six studio strobe lights, carefully aimed, focused, and metered for their intensity to create the images in this guide. My hired assistant, a well known fashion photographer in Buenos Aires, advised that six lights would flood the image with light, drowning the potential for the drama and dimension I desired. But many hours of practice, as detailed later in these pages assured me of the outcome. While I am pleased with this initial project, there is much to improve upon as I continue.

Next year, I will release my first book, a discussion of balance within the context of dance, as metaphor for the balance of energies within partnership. The book will also include 15 selected poses from my Buenos Aires photo shoot, featuring the internationally acclaimed Argentine artisans, Guillermo Salvat, Slyvia Gryntz, Silvio Grand, and my long time muse, Ms. Mayra Galante. The studio poses will be digitally enhanced, and placed on backgrounds native to the city of Buenos Aires. No images are for sale.  Final exhibition images will be printed 30"x40" on fine art canvas, in black and white. An example of this work is displayed as the image on the home page of timthomasgallery.com

The example background on this image was shot well after mid-night in Buenos Aires, on very long exposure to create the depth of field I needed for perspective detail to include the full length of the train tracks, and the bricks that compose the street. Late night shooting was necessary to ensure streets were absent of distractions. Note there are no cars, nor people. This shot required approximately 2 hours of continual reshoot due to occasional cars or people finding their way into the photo. All exhibition images will have authentic Argentine backgrounds. The images are interesting and informative alone,  however, there exists significant intention and dimension  behind what is immediately apparent, because the foundation for this work lies upon what is invisible to the eye.

A lingering question of the heart, drives one to dance, write, paint, or start a war. The foundation of my work is based upon such inquiries that trouble, and delight the heart. We are surrounded by beauty and treachery, joy and sorrow, dreams fulfilled, and dreams destroyed. We see love and hatred, companionship and loneliness. We see the wealthy raise their glasses while the destitute choke on a crust of bread. We all make sense of these things in different ways. I am making sense of it by observing these opposites, and recognizing the necessity of both.

Tango is a perfect metaphor for observing a symphony of opposites in unison that create beauty and provide context for understanding the parts. Male verses. female, light verses shadow, submission verses dominance, broken verses whole, and soft verses hard, are required mechanisms in this orchestrated construct of true-to-life relationships in which we have all found ourselves in one way or the other. Opposites provide a context of understanding one component by comparison to the other. Pain is fully understood in the context of relief. Shadows are impossible without light; and joy is fully experienced by one who has known grief. In sum, it is a matter of observing, respecting, and embracing these opposing forces, and employing the resultant energies in a balanced fashion to propel us through our lives.