“I CREATE TO DESTROY, TO CREATE ANEW. LIKE OUR CURIOSITY WHEN WE SEE A CAR WRECK OR A FEUDING RELATIONSHIP, WE ARE INNATELY DRAWN IN AS VIEWERS. THE BURN COLLECTION ATTEMPTS TO CAPTURE THAT WITH A PLAYFUL MISCHIEF THAT ERRS ON THE SIDE OF SINISTER.” WITH A BACKGROUND in theatre study, film production, and fashion photography, Joseph R. Adam came to fine art photography in his late thirties. The culmination of these disciplines informs his style and his attraction to the cinematic.
The Burn Collection is a series of photographs of Joseph’s own artwork set on fire. His subjects are his own artworks damaged in transport. He felt he couldn’t sell them but did not want them to be thrown away. “I knew I had to do something, and giving them what I thought of as a ‘warrior’s death’ (burning them) seemed the only answer.
LEFT PAGE: “Marina Burn.” ABOVE TOP LEFT: “Darling Avenue Burn.” TOP RIGHT: “The Scrap Burn.” BOTTOM LEFT: “The Falls with Garbage.” BOTTOM RIGHT: “Back to School.”
“‘Marina Burn’ was the first. I hadn’t a clue what I was doing and I didn’t know what to expect. I brought the piece and an easel to Lake Erie. It was frozen at the time and seemed a safe place to light a fire. I lit the piece and at first it seemed nothing was happening. Then it caught, quickly and violently. I took as many photos as I could. I laughed to myself, thinking I was insane for doing this, until I looked down at my camera and saw the images. I almost cried. I thought, ‘You’ve just made the image that you’ve been looking for for a long time.’” Joseph’s ideas are planned well in advance of their execution. He says, “For months before I begin working on something a feeling starts to develop. It’s not even an idea yet, just a pull towards an unknown thing. The excitement is addictive and when the feeling finally appears as an actual idea,
which is usually at the most inopportune time, the elation is indescribable. Then, bringing that thought to life with an image is the ultimate.” Joseph is now working on the Images on Things series, where he has projected photographs onto buildings to make a new photograph from that. He says, “It sounds juvenile, but the idea comes from reflecting on magical childhood memories. I hope the playfulness shines through in the work. “What makes photography so compelling for me is the idea that you can capture a moment of such absolute honesty, a truth of the purest form that exists; but that always, over time, becomes corrupted by the viewer’s interpretation.” The practical side of working as a fine art photographer is the biggest downside of photography for Joseph. “I’m horrible at selling. It’s a fear of mine, like others’ fear public speaking or clowns. But it’s something you just have to do; you have to get over yourself and just do it.” Joseph’s work, ideas, processes, and practicalities all reflect a constant alternating quest for balance. Through destruction, a rebirth; through reflection on the past, an action towards the future. This yinyang approach offers viewers the opportunity to simultaneously consider beauty in the wretched, and spontaneity within the planned. Follow Joseph R. Adam’s work: josephradam.com & IG: @josephradam photo ED 31
