Oh, to be Perry Ogden and have the privilege of photographing Francis Bacon’s studio, the final photographs before its removal. To be able to explore and capture the colors, the chaos, the mind of a genius, the living quarters in which he created and thrived. Was it documentarian photography? Was it portraiture? Was it a still life? We can only wonder. I can only image what it felt like as Perry witnessed this sacred space and pulled the camera to his eye to try to capture what he was seeing. An unfinished painting on a canvas. A door spotted with an array of blues, pinks, and black and white serving perhaps as a pallet for mixing paint. So many walls captured that were also used in the same way, an enormous pallet used as an exploration of color that was too big to be held in the hand. A close-up of brushes left to soak in oil and water. Boxes filled with cutouts of magazines, photographs and contact sheets. Books and magazines splattered in paint and opened to images of Bull Fighters. Piles and piles of rags and empty cans, discarded light bulbs, used paint rollers, and the skylight with which lit all of these objects in their natural glory. Oh, Perry where are you now with your untold stories of the smell, of the sounds, of the silence, of the energy you experienced? How did it seep into your soul and inspire your future of photography?
-Jen Fisher