The Provincetown Photographs

Edward Osowski

The Provincetown Photographs - 1993-1998 Part I Between 1993 and 1998 Frank Yamrus produced two separate, but linked photographic projects with the titles "Primitive Behavior" and "The Motion Series." Approximately 120 images comprise the project, which consists principally, but not exclusively, of images of the male nude. Among these 120 images one finds three distinct groups: the works made between 1993-1995 are the bleakest, most tragic, in a sense, with their subjects' heads or eyes covered or blocked and the bodies lying either in water or land; in 1996 portraits, tighter images of his subjects' faces, now fully visible, dominate; and, finally in 1997-1998 the bodies emerge from the setting where they had earlier lain, rising, in great activity, and finally, disappearing, leaving behind a nearly abstract image of the water.

Two different artistic echoes resonate in Yamrus' project. The first is a single work, the odd and haunting painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Giorgione titled "The Tempest" (1505). Like the obvious and immediate "facts" in a Yamrus photograph - the body, a scar on a shoulder, grass bent against a face, a head lying in water, a tattoo on an arm - the "facts" in the Georgione are easy to enumerate - a woman, nearly naked, nursing a child, a stormy sky, a bridge, a river, a gentleman, a well tended garden, a distant city. But these facts, like the specific details in Yamrus' photographs, elude easy interpretation....

@1999 Edward Osowski

To continue reading this essay by Edward Osowski, please download the pdf by clicking here.

For other essays about the Provincetown Photographs you may download the following pdfs:

Bodies, Rest and Motion by Steven Jenkins

Feral Portraiture by J. A. Hagar as it appeared in Provincetown Magazine

No Less Glamorous by Greg Campora

Beat Poetry by Jennifer Smith as it appeared in (not only) blue