Featured Photographers: Lenny Gerard - "Day vs. Night Juxtaposition”
Lenny Gerard (@lenny__gerard), an introspective artist rooted in the vibrant hues of San Diego, California, traces his artistic influences to a melting pot of cultures, life experiences, and spiritual contemplations. Brought up in the affluent neighborhoods of Pacific Beach and La Jolla, Gerard enjoyed the comfort of privilege, exposed to worldly customs through his parents who held strong ties with Turkish and Mexican cultures. His childhood was a marathon of religious explorations, caught between the rituals of tradition, the skepticism of atheism, and eventually landing on the ideas of spiritualism and philosophy.
However, Gerard’s seemingly bright upbringing had an undercurrent of unspoken shadows and the inheritance of traumas echoing from four Holocaust surviving grandparents. Their histories from different corners of the globe - Poland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Greece - infused his childhood with fear, anxiety, and a relentless search for safety. These experiences formed a traumatic framework within which Gerard learned to navigate life, view the world, and channel his emotions, ultimately serving as a catalyst for his artistic journey which eventually led him to create his series "Day vs. Night Juxtaposition.”
Using scanned Polaroids as a canvas for digital manipulation, Gerard creates spliced together Polaroids that offer a surrealist commentary on the structures of society, specifically capitalism, and its impact on the concept of natural abundance. Each pair of images, printed on archival ink jet paper and enlarged to 30”x30,” showcases the same scene, taken at different times of the day, and then cut in half and stapled together perfectly. The daytime half, imbued with warm tones, represents the bustling life of capitalism, while the cool, serene nighttime image symbolizes the unseen beauty, creativity, and exploration that takes a back seat in our work-centric lives. Through these images, Gerard subtly critiques the capitalistic society that prioritizes work over art, creativity, and exploration.
Gerard’s series is a vibrant exploration of the paradox of capitalism - the duality between endless growth and the finite resources of our planet. He challenges the notion that wealth is based upon resource accumulation, and instead envisions a world where abundance is viewed as how inline our consumption is with the natural order of the world. His creations showcase man-made shrines of wealth, symbolized by stark geometric patterns, and the organic spirituality inside all of us, represented by the natural beauty we are presented with when the lights turn off. However, these obvious divisions are not stark; they bleed into each other, embodying the constant struggle between human aspiration and natural sustainability. He explains “In my work, I reflect on the global ecological catastrophes (like climate change). You can see in the day vs. night juxtaposition series lightning in the sky and desert-scapes when there shouldn’t be such polarities in weather due to climate change. It’s really a subtle commentary on how we have arrived at this current state.”
“Day vs. Night Juxtaposition,” is not all political commentary though. As with all things in life, the dualistic nature to the cynic’s argument against capitalism is set into balance with Gerard’s message of hope. He believes in art's power to heal, uplift, and inspire. His pieces, imbued with surreal aesthetics reflect his own desire for a different future. They challenge viewers to imagine a world beyond the monotonous structures of capitalism, a world filled with creativity and healing. The artist shared with us: “When we lift ourselves up and see something surreal and fantastical, it enlightens us and inspires us to create and be cathartic. Without good art, what would the world be? A world leeched of color and without healing. Creative self-expression is the ultimate indicator of true humanity.”
Lenny Gerard’s art-making process reflects this duality. His pieces are an eclectic blend of tradition and postmodernism, with one foot rooted firmly in the analog era of his grandfather’s 35mm cameras and another stepping boldly into the realms of digital manipulation. The spirit of his art is captured in the time consuming yet fulfilling process of meticulously capturing buildings in broad daylight and then under the cool shroud of night, allowing the shifting temperature of his environment to create warm and cool tones that have become the central artistic concept of his day-night juxtapositions. After photographing, he then stitches together these contrasting halves, creating symmetrical compositions that echo the duality of human existence. His work is not simply point-and-shoot photography, but a multi-step creative process that leverages analog photography, digital manipulation, and surreal aesthetics to communicate his deeper narrative.
Overall, Lenny Gerard has created a remarkable series which blends introspective examination, societal critique, and creative expression. His exploration of dualities through the "Day vs. Night Juxtaposition" series offers an engagingly surrealistic yet deeply relatable narrative. Bravo Lenny, we can’t wait to see what you create next!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Behlen is an instant film addict and the founder and publisher of Analog Forever Magazine. Behlen is an obsessive community organizer in the film photography world, including previously launching the independent publishing projects PRYME Magazine and PRYME Editions, two enterprises dedicated to the art of instant film. Through these endeavors, he has featured and published 250+ artists from around the globe via his print and online publications.
He has self-published two Polaroid photobooks -“Searching for Stillness, Vol. 1” and “I Was a Pioneer,” literally a boxed set of his instant film work. His latest book, Searching for Stillness Vol II was published in 2020 by Static Age.
Behlen’s Polaroid photography can be found in various publications including Diffusion Magazine, Fraction Magazine, Seities Magazine, and Polaroid Now (Chronicle Books, 2021). He loves the magic sensuality of instant film: its saturated, surreal colors; the unpredictability of the medium; its addictive qualities as you watch it develop. He spends his time shooting instant film and backpacking in the California wilderness, usually a combination of the two.
Connect with Michael Behlen on his Website and on Instagram!
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