The Home Stage

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Jessica Todd Harper's latest collection of images is aptly called The HomeStage, a double entendre that alludes to both the home bound lifestyleof families with small children as well as the idea that home is thestage on which children first learn how to live. Her nuanced treatmentof her subjects and environs, coupled with her elegant compositions,unique color palette and handling of light theatrically transforms eachroom and yard into stage sets. No detail is left untouched by her eye.Private but universal she is genuine, tender, uninhibited and at timeshumorous, bearing the emotional range of the finest actress and pullingthe strongest performances from a supporting cast that includes herhusband, her children, her sister, other family members and friends

Reviews

Harper spent hours of her own childhood copying Sargents and vermeers, influences quite apparent in these light-filled images, which often, as in Chistopher with Nicholas and Catherine (Descent from the Cross), 2009, hold the sense of an artful composition in tension with that of intruding on a passing family moment.--The Editors "Bookforum"

Author Bio

Jessica Todd Harper spent much of her childhood wandering around witha sketchbook, copying paintings. This traditional artistic preparationtook an unexpected course when she started making photographsas a teenager, but the familiar canvases of her childhood heroes- JohnSinger Sargent, Whistler, Vermeer- still have their influences today: She isinterested in making emotionally charged portraits of people.Jessica's photographs have been discussed in Photo District News, CameraAustria, The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and The New Yorker.