Boxing: DoubleUp

The boxing photographs are a forceful document which reveals something new about a time andplace where boxing remains the sport of kings. From the moment you encounter the images, you enter the gym and become instantly immersed in the private lives of a special breed of men. Suspense builds as the photographs reveal a gripping record of gym life in the city. As a cultural history, it sheds radiant light on the unique and self-reliant society of the individuals that produces a long line of boxing champions. This tightly knit community gathers together athletes, trainers and promoters whose graceful, humane, stark gestures glow with metaphor.

This is an insider's view of a world. The athletes and their trainers present an array of forms in endless motion, even standing still. None of these unnamed men remain anonymous. Promoters watch and comment from the sidelines. Quiet, economical gestures telegraph immense power and intention which curves dramatically through each compelling image. The photographs were made through my participation as both an observer and as an inquisitive amateur in-training under the guidance of Master Trainer Bobby McQuillen for several years at Gleason's Gym in New York City.

Good Nudes: Black Bodies

As much as the use of beauty, sensuality and movement inform the photograph of the female nude, my work with these images is also an effort to undo the years of historical colonial biogtry, stereotyping and negative characterization of black females, which has been used to exploit, demean and mis-represent our humanity.

As Joan Morgran says in the foreword to the published book of these images, Black Bodies, "In this funny house of images convoluting Black female identity, Jules Allen has given a welcome glimpse of our true selves, and America, a much needed layer to her definition of beauty."

 

Hats & HatNots

This body of work is completely metaphorical. The images have all been captured in the vibrant activity of street life with its complexity of social interactions. The photographs are built on elements that are multi-faceted yet subtle; revealing the combination of both a social and psychological activity.

Turned up, broken down, cocked; always signifying attitude. The angle of each hat reveals a social as well as cultural nuance. Everyone's hat is correct. The work is rooted in respect, memory and tradition. The photographs reflect the personal and familiar.

Marching Bands

The marching band is a modern, precision art form that fully embodies the love of the public event as a spectacle. Dynamic marching bands breathe the soul and spirit of Africa within the modern world. They create extravagant pageants intended to inspire, educate and entertain. Each marching band is announced, refined and reinforced through highly distinctive, visual as well as musical signatures.

The tightly rehearsed bands offer an orchestral sound and presence immediately distinguishable from standard bands which can seem suddenly stiff by comparison. To capture bragging rights the bands engage in trash talk, swagger and colloquialisms.

The presentation is a staged explosive fantasy featuring a coded, persistent, ancient African vocabulary, directed by the blurred hands of the drum corps.

Rhythmology

The photographs present the beauty of the natural world from a singular angle. The images are physical impressions of the hand-built landscape of the intersection of nature and culture. It is not a collision, but a marriage of time and space. The in-depth nature of the photographs yields many surprises.

The rhythmology of light shows us terrain that is alive with metaphors. They are iconic, exultant and in motion on the land. It is the use of established, formal and technical precedents of the medium of photography that expand the style and physical scope of this work. The photographs are constructed with an imagry that pulsates between the sublime sense of the personal and obscure. It is currently a work in progress.

Africa Series: In Your Own Sweet Way

The photographs of the Africa Series, document an intimate, personal dialogue and familial relationship between the photographer and the people of Egypt, Ghana, Mali, Guinea, Sudan and Senegal.

Words will offer meaningless descriptions of the conversation evident in the photographs. Africa, as documented by Jules Allen, speaks to the viewer in it's "own sweet way."

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