“I started doing photography as a teenager in high school, at Penncrest in Delaware County,” says photographer and painter Brian Clark, who now resides in downtown Reading. “There was a very good art class there which got me interested in art in general, and I started taking pictures on family vacations.”
Architecture and Historical Details
Clark’s eye focuses on buildings and structures, with details that are compelling presenting such familiar Reading scenes as the Pagoda, Gring’s Mill and bridges arching over rivers and creeks in ways that feel compellingly fresh, all filled with subtle awe. “My pictures tend to not feature a lot of people as the main subject,” he says with a slight smile. “I like history. I like local quirks, things that look ‘different.’ And Reading was a very, very rich place at one time with a rich history. I like the parts you can still see. For example, the Pagoda. I’m drawn to it because it’s very different. It was one thing I wouldn’t have expected to see in the middle of Pennsylvania.”
Although there are many commercially gorgeous photos of the Pagoda, Clark’s photos come alive as his lens captures the Pagoda rising behind the bare branches of a tree. The tones of blacks and whites, grays and photo-grays paint a beauty that is distinctly uncommercial and raw. One photo of the Pagoda, “Illumination,” features only part of the structure’s carefully sloping roof, as if to say: “Look! See how the light embraces this beautifully crafted artifact!”
“I Try to Do My Own Thing”
A candid person who chooses his words as carefully as he selects his images, Clark clearly values original expression. Put simply: “I try to do my own thing.” He adds that he will only photograph or paint something “as long as it seems to have something original about it.” Of his “Gring’s Mill Dam” photo, he points to the monotones and grays and the reflection of the water onto the concrete bridge. In his “Romantic View” piece (taken in Spain), two people become part of the architecture, “an outside view of a bench and a Spanish couple.”
Brian Clark is a thoughtful and commanding painter as well, whose medium is acrylics. The moody blue hues of his “Eye on the Eclipse” immediately call viewers to come closer. “I was going for something minimalist and monochromatic at the same time,” Clark reveals. The paintings are not sharply focused like photos: they’re “abstract and free-flowing.” An eye at the lower corner shows pops of white, targeted on the eclipse above.
