Cleve Jones 1993

This is a photograph of Cleve Jones by Nancy Andrews. The whole image is black and white, a grayscale, which gives it this timeless quality, like it could be from any moment in the past. Your eye is immediately drawn to the boot; it dominates the foreground with its heavy tread. There's an interesting tension between the softness of Cleve's gaze and the aggressive, almost confrontational, sole of the boot. It’s up in the air, in our space, daring you to move it. Behind the boot, there’s Cleve Jones, a relaxed pose, hand on chin, next to a sewing machine. The Singer is like a second portrait in the image. Like a painting, Nancy Andrews captures a mood, more than just the record of a person, but a way of seeing; a process of creating the image through light and shadow. It reminds me of some of the work of Alice Neel, she made a study of humanity through portraiture. Andrews does something similar here.