July 2014
Artist’s Statement
This is a work in progress. I began this project with a mind to return to my roots of documentary work. For my subject, I was initially attracted to the notion of fishing piers along the eastern seaboard and how they served as a kind of “Main Street” for its beaches. But now I keep coming back to the simple idea that we, as humans, seem drawn to water. Life as we know it does not exist without water.
Water calls to us as human beings. We are mostly made up of the stuff. We are pulled towards it for many reasons … for health, pleasure and sustenance, for mind and body, for spiritual rites and rituals. It is where the otherwise modest will “let it all hang out.” Water attracts every race and social strata. It can calm us or frighten us. It can be a place of isolation and lone meditation or a location where one rubs shoulders with complete strangers. This project focuses on the interactions that are commonly found around oceans and beaches or along rivers and lakes, where a swimming hole or waterfall becomes a gathering place.
Biography
Bryce Lankard is a native of North Carolina, and a UNC-Chapel HiIl alumnus. He has served in the roles of Art Director, Photo Editor, Curator, and Principal Photographer, from New Orleans to New York City, garnering numerous awards for his photography and design. In 1995 he was a co-founder of Tribe Magazine in New Orleans and served as Creative Director for the celebrated publication. He went on to work for 9 years in New York City. In late 2006, following Hurricane Katrina, he returned to New Orleans and co-founded the non-profit New Orleans Photo Alliance (http://neworleansphotoalliance.org/). He forged the NOPA mission to create opportunities for the vibrant but neglected photography community in the Gulf South and to provide education and exposure to both the public and practitioners of the medium. Returning to North Carolina in early 2009, he has continued to share his knowledge by teaching at venues such as UNC, the Gregg Museum, the Art Institute, the Light Factory, the ArtsCenter, and Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies. In 2012 he launched the inaugural In Focus photography festival (http://frankinfocus.tumblr.com/).
Throughout all this he has continued to challenge himself creatively, exploring the language of photography, and has exhibited the results internationally to critical acclaim. His work has appeared alongside legends such as Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cindy Sherman, Bruce Davidson, and Andres Serrano, in galleries and publications in Spain, Germany, France and throughout America. His work was featured in the Light Factory’s “Romance of the Road” exhibition. His “Blink of an Eye” project was highlighted in Fraction Magazine and his “Illuminated Shadow” folio appeared in SXSE Photomagazine.
