I first discovered Mark Jenkins‘ work about 1 1/2 years ago and I didn’t like it.  Sifting through the January 2008 issue of Juxtapoz Magazine, I came across, what I believed to be, a lot more intriguing work.  There was a page on pop-surrealist Greg “Craola” Simkins‘ “I’m Scared” exhibit,  painter/low-rider bike artist Dzine‘s tricked out ski-boat called Dnipro (equipped with a DJ set up, lazers, smoke machine, 9 TVs, etc), and a spread/interview with illustrator/inker/digital artsit Tomer Hanuka.  In the mix with all of the rest of the great features in the magazine, Jenkins‘ work was lost for me.

His photographs of young girls shoved in a locker or sitting on the ledge of a building weren’t very thought provoking.  There was one of a woman passed out with her face in a plate of food in the middle of a cafeteria, but it just seemed very “high school” to me; a little bit edgy, but nothing new or particularly magnificent.

It probably took about a week or two of me reading through the other articles before I noticed something that I hadn’t before and which made me take a second look.  It was a picture of a man leaning towards a concrete building with his head embedded into the side of it.  After reading the interview with him and looking over the images again, I found out two things that gave me a completely different perspective and a ridiculous amount of appreciation for Mark Jenkins and his art.

1) Jenkins work is not really photography based at all.
2) Those weren’t even real people in those pictures. Read the rest of this entry →