Jeffrey Becom
His extraordinarily vivid images are a testimony to his eye for form and composition.
Jeffrey Becom is an American photographer with a fascination for the rich colors of Central and South America and the Mediterranean.
Artist statement:
I come to my art as a photographer and painter with formal training as an architect. For me these three pursuits ignite one passion: painted walls. Traditional painted façades offer me subject and palette from which to derive my own artwork while I, in turn, document their history, mystery, and power. Paint then - and specifically color - is my life’s calling, whether I photograph, paint, or write books about painted color customs, myths, and meanings.
I find my inspiration in ever-more remote places populated by indigenous, ritual-bound people whose architectural color springs organically from their history, geography, and faith. I consider my photographs to be documentary: the colors, subjects, and details are captured as found, using traditional equipment and materials, and printed, using traditional wet darkroom techniques.
A dozen years pursuing painted color in the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea were followed by a decade’s search in the lesser-known corners of Mexico and Central America. Then in 2002, I unfolded my map of South America. My search began in Peru, and so far I have wandered no further...Jeffrey Becom (2006)
Jeffrey Becom (1953 - ) combines an architect’s love of geometry, pattern, and texture with a painter’s sensitivity to color, light, and composition. He spent the 1980s creating a series of photographs in the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. These were collected in his book Mediterranean Color (1990) with Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Paul Goldberger. Becom then documented the painted color traditions of the living Maya throughout Mexico and Central America, culminating in his second book, Maya Color (1997). In 2008 Becom voyaged to India, producing a body of work depicting the beauty and power of the colorful traditions of vernacular Indian architecture. Becom’s latest work focuses on the painted villages of Ecuador as part of a project spotlighting Andean color customs across South America.
Becom’s photographs are represented in public and private collections throughout the world.
