“Painters of the Past” 24” x 30” O/P/P 2020
The figures in this painting were taken from a photograph by Aaron Chang, sometime in the mid 1980’s. It appears that Chang came upon the young men in his travels, in the evening, near Highway 17, Charleston, South Carolina.
Eventually a wide range of images by various photographers, was used to make a book. This book covered a number of topics in various U. S. States. Unfortunately, I don’t have the book anymore.
The heading for Chang’s photograph read:
“In Charleston, Coming to Terms With the Past: The compulsion to engage the Charleston area’s history as a slave-trading center was, for the writer, a visceral thing, akin to the urge to revisit a crime scene.”
I’ve had the young men’s image for some time. What drew me to the image initially, was the way in which this group of guys appeared to be relating to each other. I felt they had worked together for a while, and had a connection to one another, a comfortableness, a friendship. Of course, photographs are fictions in way or another, and realizing that, I couldn’t really know them.