MEN: AN EXHIBITION OF FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY FROM NEW YORK CITY

by Dave Jackson

Showing at: Halo Nightclub, 10534 Jasper Ave.
When: One-night party/exhibit, Thursday, at 7 p.m.
Information: www.jacksonphotografix.com- - -

After a decade in New York City, Dave Jackson is bringing home a photographic chunk of the Big Apple.

In the late 1980s and early '90s, Jackson made his mark in the Edmonton arts scene as the larger-than-life publicist with the Phoenix and Citadel theatres and as an event organizer best known for his decadent Hell parties.

After moving to New York City in 1995, he continued these nightlife-loving ways working as a club publicist, but also shifting career gears and embracing his first love: photography.

"In '97, I started taking photographs and landed a cover shot in the second issue of a brand-new nightlife magazine called Shout. My photography career started rolling really fast after that."

A 20-image-strong showing of Jackson's subsequent American photographic oeuvre -- Men: An Exhibition of Fine Art Photography from New York City -- will be exhibited in a one-night party/art showing at the Halo Nightclub on Thursday, Oct. 7. (A second party/showing will be held at Woody's on Friday, Oct. 15.)

"It's kind of ironic that someone so well known for his Hell parties comes back and does a show in a club called Halo," he says, adding that the Halo evening will feature tunes from DJ Waylon Sherrington and DJ Remo.

Yet, as drastic as this shift from publicist/event guru to fine art/event photographer may seem, Jackson says his esthetic training started while working in the Edmonton theatre community.

"For years and years, I was hiring and working with designers on theatre publicity material as well as working closely with two artistic directors -- Bob Baker (formerly with the Phoenix, now artistic director of the Citadel Theatre) and Robin Phillips (former artistic director at the Citadel and now a well-travelled independent director on Broadway and the West End) -- who were big influences on me."

The energetic photographer sees this immersion in the world of performing as having given his photography a distinctive style and a fearlessness when it comes to embracing high-drama imagery and staging in his figure-based work.

"Phillips in particular had a huge impact, particularly on my white-on-white images where I shoot a figure draped in white on a white background. It really lets the subject stand out in the image," he says.

Jackson, currently dividing his time between New York City and Edmonton, also shoots more documentary-style nightlife and celebrity photographs, produces commissioned portraits (recent clients ranged from "a transsexual to a Finnish politician") and has been working on a series of landscapes as well as curating the occasional art exhibit.

"I don't want my work to be derivative of anybody else's style. I'm developing my own look focusing on clarity and producing simple and clean images."

Other artists of interest for Jackson in his exploration of the figure -- most notably the nude male figure -- include Pierre and Gilles, Victor Skrebneski, Bruce Weber and Herb Ritts.

While the nude is still relatively rare in the Edmonton art scene, Jackson says that's not the case for the New York art fashion and art scene.

"The nude is incredibly prevalent in the fashion world and it's a rare model I see in New York who doesn't have a nude shot in their portfolio. There's no fear that nude photos will have any future career impact."