Subtle Implications
Recent Work of Dale Pierce
An Interview by Christopher Secor

Talk to Dale Pierce regarding his work or his subject and you know instantly that he is passionate. It’s neither subtle nor implied. It’s simple. It’s straightforward. The man behind the camera loves his work and his subject. He is also very happy with the success he has had in a fairly brief period of time and as he says, "Where I am right now is a wonderful place for me." Dale Pierce recently had a show as a featured artist at Radiant Light Gallery in Portland, ME and now has a large exhibition of his work at LLGAF. Dale does his work on a part-time basis but the effort, energy and love are full time. I met Dale while working at Light Work and Community Darkrooms in Syracuse, New York, where you can often find him teaching a class on advanced printing techniques or printing his own work intently. I talked to him recently about what he does:

CS: When, how, and why were you interested in the medium of photography?

DP: I can’t think of a time I haven’t been interested in photography or the visual arts. I’m a hypervisual person, everything for me has been about how things look. ...Even before I understood what I was looking at, I was acutely aware of light and shadow...and everything I have done in my career has been in the visual medium. I have a strong background in theater....My interest in photography really developed after I took my first course in 1991 in basic black and white...and I first started to learn about the control of the camera and f-stops and such...I remember the first piece of film and contact sheet and thinking that was exactly what I visualized when I took the picture. I realized, if not consciously at that time, that I had found something that had moved me that nothing else ever had.

Black and white photography has a purity and timelessness that appealed to me...always being just about light and shadow, more about the subject...so color has never interested me. Everything that I have done has been in black and white.

I love the process....Digital holds no magic for me. I really love the process of working in a traditional darkroom, everything about it appeals to me.

CS: What artists first influenced you and have influenced you more recently?
DP: I would have to say when I first started I was looking at portrait artists. As a kid I was looking at old glamour photographers...George Hurrell was a very strong influence because of his dramatic use of light and composition. With my nudes, that would be George Platt Lynes....More contemporary artists would include Herb Ritts, John Dugdale, and Robert Cusido, whose portfolio in Blue magazine in 2000 was really a turning point for me, showing me a different direction for my own work. So I spent the next three years experimenting
with toners and bleaching until I came to the technique that I’m now using and which is represented by the work that I’m showing now.

My work has a lot of texture....The look of my work has evolved...with the toning, I like the fact that people often compare my prints to some of the older alternative processes. Some of them have a look of artists’ renderings as opposed to photographs—which I like and it’s very deliberate.

I love being in the studio but that’s limiting too. Actually with the building I’m in, the Delavan Center in Syracuse, I’m allowed to use the entire building as my studio so I know where the light is at any given time of the day in any part of the building, I’ve been allowed the freedom to shoot my models anywhere there...I use natural light as well as studio lighting.

CS: ...and the subject matter?
DP: I always knew my work would always be about people. People are fascinating to me. My experience and observation is that artists are attracted to different mediums...styles, subject matter. In many cases they can’t even explain it and I don’t think they need to. My move was to the work that I’m doing now, photographing nudes...and although I do photograph women, I photograph more men. For the first four years or so I photographed men exclusively for a couple of reasons...they were easier for me to find and as a gay man I am attracted to males. Also I have just found them easier to work with.

Because I knew I wanted to show my work, it was suggested to me by a gallery owner to pick a subject that people would want to look at and when I thought about that, it seemed natural to me that I would photograph the human body. But then that presented the dilemma—how does one go about this? I was extremely lucky because as it turned out my earliest shoots with a male subject were very successful...

CS: You mentioned an interesting encounter with a model. Can you recount that for me?
DP: Oh, that’s an amusing story. I got a number off the college bulletin board for a male model. We made arrangements to meet at my studio one Sunday morning. The guy pulled up in his pickup truck and got out stark naked even barefoot. We went to my studio. I was busy with my
lenses and when I turned around Mike had this raging hard-on. I said, "you better do something with that or I won’t be able to concentrate." Eventually we got into the work
and he was a wonderful model. I photographed him all over the building, got some great work done, and used him several more times. He’s a bisexual man still living in Syracuse.

CS: Have you ever received any strong reactions to your work or felt there was misinterpretation of the images?
DP: In regards to misinterpretation or misunderstanding of my works, simply...most people still see photographing the male nude as a sexual thing; of course there is a certain amount of homoerotism in my work and I’ve gone on to photograph male couples and so on...but its not always just about sex. There was one instance with one of the strongest images I had ever done which involved two men... some people were very uncomfortable, put off by it but which I didn’t mind at all. I thought it was laughable though I was disappointed that they didn’t see the power in it. I actually found it laughable that people would get so upset seeing a picture with two men in it and anything with two nude men in it has to be sexual...

CS: Where and when did you start showing your work?
DP: My very first showing of my work was at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Syracuse. Needless to say, it was not nudes...that’s where I began. My first showing of this work [male nudes] was also in Syracuse in a galley called Metaphorestry in 1999 and I was very fortunate in that the three running the gallery allowed me to do whatever I wanted to do and I will always be grateful. Up to that time no one had had a show of male nudes in a private gallery here. It was a wonderful experience because the show was a success and I still have a good relationship with two of the same people and have gone on to show in other galleries with them.

CS: What do you see for the future of your work?
DP: Where am I going with it? It’s an adventure....I often refer to this as my second act in life and who knows where it will go....I continue to refine and experiment with new processes...
so I see myself continuing to evolve in terms of the process and how I present the work. I have ideas and how I present the work. I have ideas and themes that I would like to pursue. Where I am right now is a wonderful place for me. I’m always looking for inspiration. I’ve been very fortunate to have had two or three models that have been great inspiration and I’m looking for the next...

I would like to see my work published...in a magazine such as Blue because of the quality and caliber of their work, maybe at some point in time a book or whatever...

I don’t have a desire to work full time at this. In my experience, I’ve seen some very talented photographers stifle if not kill the creative impulse because of the pressures of making a living... I love doing some ‘commercial’ portrait work but I love my day job as a stylist that I’ve been doing since I was 18 years old. In an ideal world, I could see myself having the opportunity to do more photography and it would be wonderful to be able to travel and work with models in different localities, but who’s to say where things may lead...

Christopher Secor is a History of Art major at the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University with an interest in photography and museum studies.