As a professional photojournalist, Mark Abouzeid brings his particular view of the world in which we live to international readers every month. For the past year, he has been resident in the Jazz Club front row centre Tuesday night for the jam session of local and internationally renowned musicians. Through this work, Abouzeid reminds us that out of the darkest periods are born the greatest emotions…Joy in passion, most of all.
The photos for this exhibit are unique in many ways, opposite from the norm. The photos were shot with a Nikon d3 which is the first digital camera that can do something no analogue camera can…shoot perfect photos in a dark jazz club with no additional lights or flash. Only this camera could allow him to shoot the mood and sense of a Blues Jam without changing it in any way.
“The blues is, first and foremost, a state of mind. The blues is, fundamentally, the sense of unavoidable fate. If the quintessence of the blues is pain, then the art of the blues consists of bridging the chasm between tragedy and comedy.”
Mark Abouzeid
The photos are printed, conversely, in a traditional method adapted to modern photography: Durst Lambda. This process allows digital negatives to be projected by light, imprinted on photographic paper and developed in baths, like their analogue cousins. The result is an archive print with true Black & White representation. All digital printing methods typically demonstrate a subtle hue of grey or magenta in the whites.
The photos are limited series of 20 prints. Collectors are registered on a list and after the 20th photos are printed and sold, the original digital file is destroyed. A limited edition of books commemorating the project have been produced by Mark Abouzeid and Gaia Zamboni.
Artist’s Vision
When I feel blue, I need the Blues.
Since I was 13, I have taken refuge in clubs and bars to lose myself in the Blues. It’s not just the music but also the sense of belonging, of familiar smells, of rhythms that move you from within and lyrics that parallel life’s dramas.
Every major event in my life has in some way been lived within the walls of a Blues Club.
