11.9.17 | Nassau, Bahamas – Thursday’s ensemble of works was a personal dedication to the beauty of the 700 islands and cays that exist within the realms of the Bahamian landscape. Emerging artist and photographer Allan Jones was positioned at just the right angles to creatively capture 13 images of the northern islets of The Bahamas known to many as home but rarely seen from a gull’s eye view.
Each photograph barely touched by the magic of Photoshop rests upon the walls of the Pro Society art gallery at the University of The Bahamas (UB) creating an atmosphere of familiarity yet peaking the interests of viewers all around. Some framed in a wooden skeleton to convey a sense of earthiness and others hung from paperclips on clear tacks exuding a teacher’s flare.
Keisha Oliver, curator of the exhibition and assistant art professor at UB, says Allan’s work
“offers a unique perspective to the geography and history of this tropical paradise” as it “surveys the vast beauty and complexity of archipelagic shapes and forms spanning the islands of The Bahamas”.
Allan says the inspiration for this body of work sparked from a combination of trips taken around the peninsula.
“Whenever I went up –an example would be when I was helping with the hurricane relief in Long Island, I was on an assessment and I had some priority of where I could sit so I just sat close to the window to get some really interesting shots.”
“The real reason I think, I can’t speak for the timing, but my whole theme about displaying all of this was for us to get an appreciation for the islands in ways that we probably don’t always see our islands. We always see them from very far or very close on the ground. We never get to see how deltas interact with sandbars and the natural shapes that are created just by these natural currents, and this happens every day in The Bahamas but we don’t get to see it.”
An environmentalist at heart, Allan says he choose to execute island life from a gull’s eye view as opposed to regular every day shots of Bahamian people because “that’s what we’re used to seeing and I wanted to push something different”.
Definitely switching up the narrative, Allan gets a grade A in our books on his first show as an emerging Bahamian artist!
Though the opening was this past Thursday, the exhibition will remain on display until November 19 in room S9 at UB otherwise known as the Pro Society. To keep up with Allan Jones and Keisha Oliver, follow them on their instagram pages @allanography and @keishalive.
