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• ART REVIEW: BEAUTIFUL PHOTOGRAPHS RAISE QUESTIONS, AWARENESS (7/7/2008)
  BY LEAH RUBY SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE-JOURNAL MAY 25, 2008
  
  "My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph." -- Richard Avedo
  
  There are problems with photography as a medium. It is not real, but it looks real and people often believe that it is. Photography is voyeuristic and exploitative by its very nature. Photographers "capture" images much like hunters capture prey. Photos are documents, but the question is: of what?
  
  What does Jeff Ross want us to see at his exhibit at Sierra Arts? In this group of 26 large-format photograph portraits, one cannot help but be curious at the motivation behind the collection. They are immaculate photographs, and it is no secret that large-format black-and-white images reveal an almost unnatural beauty.
  
  Why the subject? These are photo portraits of disabled workers at High Sierra Industries, mostly in the workplace, with a few off site at Ross's studio. HSI is a non-profit dedicated to enriching the lives of disabled people of all degrees.
  
  There are a lot of clues when searching for the answer to the question of "why this subject?"
  
  The title, "Hope: 26 Inspirations," seems to be crying out, "These are people who are not hopeless!" Additionally, Ross has added text to each piece about the individual's personality and the experience of photographing them. The technical skill of the prints speaks respect. Piecing together the narrative, Ross seems to be trying to tell the story of an underrepresented group of people that is absolutely interesting and worth listening to.
  
  Many people have been listening. The collection won Ross the Advertising Association of Northern Nevada's Community Contribution of the Year Award for 2007 for raising public awareness for the kind of people who work at HSI. Three pieces also were selected as part of a juried show in San Francisco.
  
  When describing the project, Ross tells of its beginnings as well as his deep connections with the subjects:
  
  "This project began when I met Lavonne Brooks, the CEO of High Sierra Industries. Lavonne gave me a tour and I was very moved by the workers, so I gave myself the assignment of capturing their personalities. This all started about two years ago. It's been a very rewarding project for me personally, and I feel part of the family there.
  
  "There is a lot of me in this body of work; hopefully it shows my compassion for people and the respect I have for my friends at HSI. Because I used large-format photography, it allowed me to work slowly and spend time getting to know these people. I didn't run in and snap a few shots. Yet I strived to have the technical side of my artform take a secondary role; the subjects are the heroes."
  
  In essence, Ross wants us to see a beauty not often seen, and in the process has even revealed a little about himself. However, is it possible to transcend photography's exploitative and voyeuristic nature? Does Ross' true intent actually speak through the photos without the artist notes? These are successful and rich photographs for many reasons -- well worth a gander -- but does the experience of looking at them bring the viewer more understanding of the subject or just widen the gap by magnification? Viewers are invited to look for the answers in Ross' stunning set of images.