Immediately, you are drawn in -- the subtle nuances, the sharp detail, the suggestive content. The stark white of the gallery contrasts with the silver gelatin prints, so much so that you can see yourself in the art. The chatter of the gallery sitters, the blaring of 107.5's Friday Dance Party mix fades away and you hear the babble of the country brook. You hear the sighing of the trees and the endearing silence, the ambiance that Jeff Whetstone captures in his exhibit, New Wilderness.
Displayed at Off-Grounds Gallery, New Wilderness is Whetstone's latest endeavor. With a large focus on man's relationship with nature, the photographs encompass a wide spectrum of nature, emphasizing detail while reflecting Whetstone's personal experience with nature.
"I wouldn't say it has a real message," Whetstone said. "My aspiration is to show that humans are animals, we are nature and it is our instinct to control and dominate it."
Growing up in Chattanooga, Tenn., Whetstone, now a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has focused his photography and writing on the Southern world he knows so well. New Wilderness captures the essence of nature and man's place in it; stills of hunters, militant and masked, misty rivers overshadowed by the debris left by human occupants, a man sleeping in tall grass reflect this environment that encompasses Whetstone's past.
"I'm exploring a sense of place -- the Southern Appalachian Mountains at its most charged, most beautiful and most scary, in some respects," Whetstone said.
The exhibit portrays not only man's influence on nature, but also the intertwining, dominant relationship man has with regard to the natural world around him. Stills of two hunters reclining together combined with the innocence of two teenage boys, interacting with water snakes subtly underneath a waterfall, suggests that man's place in nature leans more towards control rather than humble submission.
"Sensuality and sexuality is a big part of my work," Whetstone said. "The most prominent instinct and the most dominant part of our animal selves is sexuality. It is a really big part of my work ... what we portray is part of our animal ancestry: sexuality and dominance."
The biggest and most compelling piece in the exhibit is a grid of nine prints, all detailing a bird's-eye view of a different animal sitting inside a white cup, set against the ecosystem the animal inhabits.
"The grid is a different body of work," Whetstone said. "It is a reflection of our relationship to nature. It shows the tension between loving how nature and animals look and the isolation of animals. That's how we like our nature ... where wilderness stops and human domination begins."
Eerily beautiful, with extraordinary detail that emphasizes each hair on the raccoon, each toe of the bat and the slimy feeling of the salamander's skin, it brings to mind man's urge to scientifically categorize and control nature.
"This is the beginning of my exploration of New Wilderness," Whetstone said. "New Wilderness is wilderness that includes humans, our use and occupation of it. Abandoned strip mines, trees with ladders built up it. What we have now needs to be respected. Nature and wild is all around. There are a number of snakes, raccoons and salamanders that are not as romantic as big animals, but we need to have respect for them. New Wilderness includes us, rather than excluding people."
Jeff Whetstone's 'New Wilderness' runs at Off-Grounds Gallery through Nov. 25.
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