AN INTERNATIONAL POETRY JOURNAL IN ENGLISH & CHINESE
Stem and Digression
Images © Kent C. Behrens
Kent C. Behrens’ photographic art has been recognized for over two decades in many U.S. exhibitions and publications. His focus extends from plants and animals to architectural imagery and visual abstraction, sometimes incorporating unconventional processes such as Polaroid image transfers and emulsion lifts. Mr. Behrens’ work appears in museum, corporate, and private collections, botanical center exhibits, and in such venues as The Sun, a U.S. journal of contemporary photography, literature, and essays. Though long devoted to traditional silver print photography and process, he has recently explored digital realms. Born into a Chicago family of informal painters and photographers, he has served as a college faculty member, an urban planner, and graphic designer. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A.
美國藝術家肯特·貝倫斯從事攝影藝術二十餘年，作品見於多種攝影展和出版物。他的興趣涉及植物、動物、建築和抽象影像，有時也做非傳統的寶麗來移印、移膜。貝倫斯先生的作品常在博物館、植物園展出，曾刊於《太陽》（The Sun）等美國當代攝影及文學雜誌，並為商業機構和私人所購買與收藏。儘管長期專注於傳統的銀鹽攝影和暗房作業，他近年來亦開始數碼領域的探索。貝倫斯在芝加哥長大，從小受到愛好繪畫和攝影的家人薰陶。曾從事攝影教學、城市規劃和平面設計等工作。現居美國內布拉斯加州奧馬哈。
Stem and Digression
Mr. Behrens’ art, whatever its photographic technique, often features plant life in considering the antithesis between rootedness and outward force. He also seeks to navigate the parallel tension between continuity and digression, a dynamic observable in most growth patterns, including human ideation. Hence the title for this sequence of images. His earliest work, he reports, was inspired by classical Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, particularly as a calligraphic figure may be felt before it is understood.
貝倫斯先生的藝術，不管採用哪種攝影技術，常常聚焦於植物的生命，呈現它們向下延伸的根莖與向上生長的枝葉間強烈的力量對比。他試圖探索主幹與分枝間平行的張力，這是可以在很多生命體中觀察到的生長規律，人類的思維亦是如此。於是，便有了這一組攝影作品的題目「莖與分枝」。據他說，他的早期作品受到中國和日本書法的啟示，尤其是在領悟內容之前便感受到的文字的象形之美。
