Blind by Jesse Burke

Issue 25

Blind is an exploration into man's obsession with and innate calling to simultaneously dominate and embrace the natural world. I'm most interested in concepts related to hunting- such as death and power, fragility and vulnerability, identity, mutability and camouflage. I am also interested in the awkward, yet often beautiful and romantic, relationship we share with nature.

Blind is also about my relationship to this primal calling and is an exploration into how I relate to these activities, environments, and men. As a boy the forest was readily available to me and has always served as a place for me to be free and connect with my more primitive side.

The subjects, which include portraits, landscapes and still lifes, are serve largely as evidence of these rituals and emphasize the foreign nature of these relationships. Often set in a nocturnal backdrop, the images are meant to evoke a sense of disconnect and strangeness, yet retain a seductive and tender quality.

"To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go." -Mary Oliver

Jesse Burke is a Rumford, Rhode Island based artist.
To view more of Jesse's work, please visit his website