Jan Wandrag

Jan Wandrag, born in 1976 in South Africa and living in the USA, refers to his work as “non-straight street photography“. Non-straight has a dual meaning because it does not adhere to the visual Ethos of pure, direct and unedited photography, and it establishes a homosexual perspective. The young men that Wandrag captures in New York urban settings have fulfilled their purpose after this involuntary and often unnoticed “casting”: they provided images that can now begin to take on their own lives. With the help of computers, Wandrag manages to create completely new scenarios, resembling modern versions of biblical stories like David and Jonathan, out of the fleeting props and characters that he picks up off the street. The love between young men, which remains steadfast against all familial differences, overcomes forced separation, and only ends with Jonathan’s early death in battle, has a timeless tragic dimension which can, and always will, repeat itself.
By knowingly letting himself be driven by the mainstream and arranging appealing model faces, Jan Wandrag succeeds in creating a clean and secularized glance at a surprisingly human level. Taking pleasure in the Bible is freed from universal constraints and dominical exegesis.
Whether the Vatican would approve of such illustrations like “Liebe, die wunderbarer als Frauenliebe ist (Love that’s more wonderful than a woman’s love)” remains to be seen. Jan Wandrag would pay little attention anyway because his pictures develop their vitality through their profanity. They naturally draw people with their irreverent visualizations of the holy book.

Dr. Boris von Brauchitsch

Expositions (Sélection)

LIENS

www.janwandrag.com