There’s no moral to the story that I’m telling with these pictures. My goal as a photographer has always been to get as close as possible to reality and get it down on little pieces of light-sensitive paper in order to share it with other people so that what’s good and bad in the world isn’t forgotten- John Sevigny

Wendy

Santisma Muerte

Make Up

Jazzercise

Girls grow up. The splitting begins. Tosses. Turns. Finally it arrives at a crossroads. Perhaps in some border town, or perhaps with a one-way ticket to some unknown metropolis. Meeting Sevigny’s images some months ago propelled this viewer into asking herself, how did this happen? Where does it start? What went wrong? Are we dancing, yet? Can I order a beer? Everything is going to be okay. Really, it’s going to be fine.

What convinced this writer to withstand and laugh at the images are triumphs embedded within the lines of these women’s faces. There’s no victimization, but a heady reticence unattached to an aligned “lot” in life that says: “I’m here. This is where I ended up. I’m loving it because I have too. Come here and give me a kiss.”

Rio San Juan

“Mark 16:9: Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.”

Lady from Zacapu

Las Pintas

Woman with Necklace

Serenade

It’s menacing, yet forgiving what Sevigny paints. The Miami-born photographer set out to shoot pathways into an existence of lives we may not want to imagine.  He brings warmth and enveloping lightness to all the beauties; young, old, ridden with denial, and worn ragged. There’s nowhere to hide. Sevigny is fully aware of time standing still. He shoots with a gentle awareness. Here, he knows that the parameters change from novice to seasoned expert, and it’s razor sharp.

Set in Guadalajara, Mexico over 10 months, Sevigny proves he has the uncanny ability to chameleon himself amongst the women. The photographer managed to put himself in an environment that lends itself to the obvious.  But it is not exploitive. It is happenstance.  Soon, the tequila starts to release its fumes, not of regret, but of the celebratory circumstance that puts a human being where he finally belongs. Playful though, at times, one cannot slink back behind the curtain of these images or hunker down against the jukebox. You have to take a peak, but rest-assure you won’t leave clean.

These unrepentant Majas, who could very well encapsulate themselves within the luxurious underbelly of the lower classes of 18^th-19^th Century Madrid just won’t let you go there. There’s no sadness here. It’s not allowed. And Sevigny shoots with assuredness, portraying an aspect of the human spirit that manages to crawl itself out of all the dark holes. Caravaggio, dark as he was, saved room for that final fixture of light, the halo that must arise within all dark situations.

Martha and Mary Magdalene by Caravaggio

El Cielo

Bohemia Tecate

Mary Magdalene by Caravaggio

La Terraza

Wendy II

Lynn May

Sevigny is not in denial. The world’s oldest profession mixed with a 30,000-year history of painting is a seductive sedative for the camera.  The canons of artistic greats have come back to this again and again, but Sevigny manages to plaster a 21^st century face on the story.  The inquisition is over. It happened. It’s dead and gone and the worms have buried it. But Sevigny doesn’t let us forget, albeit gently, softly, and with a kiss….

Posted by Ana Roman for PhotoSynth Magazine

(Source: gonecity.blogspot.com)