On view at Document is a two-person exhibition pairing work by Jimmy DeSana and Paul Mpagi Sepuya. Both distinctive photographic voices are challenged by one another, iron sharpening iron, resulting in a generative exhibition drenched in intimacy, connectedness and truth.
Anchoring the start of the exhibition is Sepuya’s “A Portrait (0X5A7726),” showing a figure sitting on a perch that’s draped with a black-velvet backdrop. The figure has one foot on the ground, the other tucked against the opposite inner thigh, one hand rests lazily near the toes, their torso leans to the right of the frame with their elbow as a kickstand, their body as a whole in a state of relaxed composure.
Toward the left edge of the photo, Sepuya is seen in the background standing upright on his knees behind the leg of his camera’s tripod. This decision changes the viewer’s passive set of eyes into the pinhole of a camera obscura. The subject is no longer everything seen within the frame; it is now only the figure against the velvet backdrop. Sepuya’s physical visibility in the background is now the mirror correcting the image, changing the viewer’s experience of the subject, enabling the composition to make complete sense. Paired with Sepuya’s “A Portrait (0X5A7726)” is DeSana’s “Terence Sellers,” a black-and-white image of a figure bending toward the left of the frame, one hand on their thigh and the other near their heart. The background has a diffused gradient textural quality that is further augmented by the sheen of the figure’s silky skirt. The tightly cropped image overflows with anguish or passion in the figure’s inhale, depletion or longing in their exhale.
These two works, positioned next to one another, introduce an important truth that threads throughout the exhibition. The two artists share an expert framing sensibility, elevating the physical crop of an image to a practice of its own. Sepuya adds with precision the necessary amount of information within the frame, while DeSana’s images are built upon the information left out of the frame. The symbiotic relationship between each image pairing’s framing cleverly borders the exact boundary of divulgence willing of the respective artist.
In Sepuya’s “Darkroom Mirror (0X5A0752),” two figures gently entangle, one the photo taker looking forward at the viewer through the lens of a camera, and the other looking backwards toward the familiar black velvet draping. The tangled limbs are positioned with a natural connection, occupying ease as a decisive moment. Paired with this piece is DeSana’s “Untitled,” a black-and-white image of a nude figure lying on the ground with their legs up to their chest and holding up a figure sitting on a chair. The legs of the chair stretch between the two figures like stringing glue pulled between two separating planes. Formally, the pairing echoes embraces of intimacy that rely on trust, Sepuya’s emotional and DeSana’s physical, and absorbs the viewer to comply with this reliance.
Through Sepuya’s expert addition and DeSana’s disciplined omission, these two dynamic photographers support each other with abundance. The result is a cross-generational study of photographic techniques released from their bounds to time, with the subjective field fully surveyed through decisive framing.
“Jimmy DeSana, Paul Mpagi Sepuya” is on view at Document, 1709 West Chicago, through March 21.