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Afterword to Pressure - June, 1997
by Catherine Edelman
I've known Joe Ziolkowski since 1985, the year we both came to Chicago to attend grad school at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. We had similar concerns, making images which attempted to bridge the gap between the personal and the political. Joe's work has always been a combination of immediate personal experiences and greater cultural stigmas. Working with the male nude for more than fifteen years, Joe creates photographs which help him understand his sexuality and the taboo associated with being gay in the era of AIDS.
Over the years, Joe has refined his vision and purpose, exploring the emotional and physical bounds men sustain and the pain and pleasure these attractions create. The result of his unyielding pursuit is "Pressure," a series of images that is uncompromising in its beautiful rendering of the male anatomy, while celebrating and questioning the way men relate.
Whether photographing a man isolated in a black void, two men clutching each other in a weightless dark atmosphere, a man balancing himself on one hand surrounded by nothing, or men suspended in a warm caress, all of Joe's men are bathed in a glowing light that emanates from darkness - a light that is both comforting and dangerous.
It is this blackness that separates "Pressure" from Joe's signature white background pieces in his first book, "Walking the Line." In his newest work we are confronted with healthy men balancing, falling, resting, and existing in darkness reserved for our nightmares and fears. In the era of AIDS, Joe's photographs challenge men to find stability in a time of great worry - to find comfort in situations which produce great pressure.
I'm honored to have worked with Joe for so many years. His passion for representing the male nude in all of its variants is admirable and inspiring - qualities most artists can only hope for.
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