"Psychologically speaking, living in America and being an American is to experience a profound sense of alienation. Feelings of isolation colour my photographs —that’s what you’re sensing. It’s fascinating: what’s in your mind, heart and soul gets telegraphed onto the film plane and embedded in the photograph. It can’t be avoided."
Through color images of road signs, abandoned factories, strip malls, and gas stations, Jeff Brouws documents a national identity. His personal interpretation of contemporary American culture asks a series of sociological questions. Beyond mere documentation, Brouws comments on the cycle of construction, destruction and regeneration.
"It's ok to hint or suggest at political content or intention, but you can't overdo it, or try to ram it down the viewers throat: I think you want to strive for subtlety. Photographs are open to multiple meanings and you have to allow enough space for that multi-dimensionality to have room to breathe, that's true."
Selected Collections:
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
San Francisco Museum of Art, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
Harvard's Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
Monographs:
Approaching Nowhere, 2006
Readymades: American Roadside Artifacts, 2003
Inside the Life Reptile Tent: The Twilight World of the Carnival Midway, 2001
Highway: America's Endless Dream, 1997
Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations, 1992