Accra Shepp’s “Folium Pictum” at the Von Lintel Gallery
Accra Shepp, John, 2004, silver gelatin emulsion on leaf mounted on paper, 24.5 x 26 inches (62.2 x 66.0 cm), Von Lintel Gallery
By Ana Osorno
Photography has always been a manner of visual storytelling, from portraits of the people around us to landscapes of the places we travel. Image making and documentation have become a manner for both artists and non-artists alike to document people, places and stages throughout our lives. But Accra Shepp has taken his commitment to visual storytelling to a new level. Shepp, a native New Yorker, has spent his life studying and documenting our relationship with nature and our environments. Over the past 40 years of his work, he has exhibited all over the world and continued to pursue the documentation of people and their interactions with our planet.
Accra Shepp, Pak Kandi, 1999, Three silver gelatin emulsion on leaf mounted on paper, 38.5 x 95.5 inches (97.8 x 242.6 cm) overall, each 38.5 x 28.5 inches, Von Lintel Gallery
Steering away from typical silver gelatin images printed on to white photo paper, Shepp has spent time traveling around our country and taking stunning portraits of farmers and immigrants and printed them directly onto the crop to which they devote their time and energy. The result? Stunning, breathtaking and large portraits printed on huge delicate leaves of the tobacco plant. These leaves tell the story of these farmers and their life’s work. The images appear to have naturally emerged from the leaves themselves, as the fine details of each face interweave with the veins of the plant. It is hard to look away from each life-size image, as you are confronted by the mere stature and prominence of each tobacco leaf, each typically over 2 to 3 feet wide and tall.
Accra Shepp, untitled (three children), 2003, silver gelatin emulsion on leaf mounted on paper, 34.5 x 64 inches (87.6 x 162.6 cm), Von Lintel Gallery
The images allow the viewer to witness and understand the connection between farmer and product, worker and his life’s work. Shepp allows this understanding to delve deeper into the narrative he creates—a narrative and critique of our history and the socio-economic statuses across our country. In a statement, Shepp said tobacco farming has had a “long and complicated history from its cultivation through slave labor at the founding of this country to its modern cultivation with the use of migrant labor. I wanted to see where tobacco comes from and who grows it.” So, he went on a road trip to investigate.
Accra Shepp, Castle Portrait, 2003, Mixed Media (archival pigment print and silver gelatin emulsion on leaf. three panels 58 x 164 (147 cm x 416 cm), center panel 42.75 x 101, leaf panels each 19.5 x 27 inches, Von Lintel Gallery
The profoundness of this show and these images lies in its ability to continue to deliver commentary on our history and create a dialogue about the importance of understanding the history of this product and the people behind it. The show becomes a balancing act between the weight of the images and their story delicately placed on the paper-thin leaves and hung for us to see. The reality of the images stares back at the viewer and invites them to dive deeper into the story and beyond what meets their eyes.
