Windows To The Soul

Andrew Kilgore looks for light in new photographs

There are no names to identify the subjects of Andrew Kilgore’s photo exhibition, “Let There Be Light: 100 Black Men.” He says words get in the way.
There are no names to identify the subjects of Andrew Kilgore’s photo exhibition, “Let There Be Light: 100 Black Men.” He says words get in the way.

Across Arkansas, the name Andrew Kilgore is synonymous with the phrase "portrait photographer" -- so much so, in fact, that he's listed in the Arkansas Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture with other state treasures, past and present, and is the subject of a documentary film titled "A Lens to the Soul." His roots stretch from New York to Texas and even to India, but like so many other people, he stopped in Fayetteville, fell in love and stayed.

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Photographs by Andrew Kilgore

There are no names to identify the subjects of Andrew Kilgore’s photo exhibition, “Let There Be Light: 100 Black Men.” He says words get in the way.

photo

Photographs by Andrew Kilgore

There are no names to identify the subjects of Andrew Kilgore’s photo exhibition, “Let There Be Light: 100 Black Men.” He says words get in the way.

photo

Photographs by Andrew Kilgore

There are no names to identify the subjects of Andrew Kilgore’s photo exhibition, “Let There Be Light: 100 Black Men.” He says words get in the way.

photo

Photographs by Andrew Kilgore

There are no names to identify the subjects of Andrew Kilgore’s photo exhibition, “Let There Be Light: 100 Black Men.” He says words get in the way.

photo

Photographs by Andrew Kilgore

There are no names to identify the subjects of Andrew Kilgore’s photo exhibition, “Let There Be Light: 100 Black Men.” He says words get in the way.

"I came here by accident, but after I was here for about six months, I sat down and made a very deliberate choice to stay here and spend my life and career here," the Arkansas Encyclopedia quotes him as saying. "I knew it might not have the rewards of a broader reputation as a photographer, but that it would give me a great deal of freedom and a population of people that I had really come to love and respect."

FAQ

‘Let There Be Light:

100 Black Men’

WHEN — Through April 1

WHERE — Upstairs reading room at the Fayetteville Public Library

COST — Admission is free

INFO — 856-7105

Best known for the riveting, stark portraits he shoots in black and white, Kilgore says he didn't own a camera until 1970. After a Vietnam-era stint in the Peace Corps in India, he was on his way to Austin, Texas, when he made the purchase in Hong Kong that would shape his life. Hired to work with developmentally disabled children at the Austin State School, his passion became photographing them. Diversity, he says, fascinates him, whether it's people "from all over the world" he met in El Paso as a youngster, the various cultures he experienced in India or populations with mental illness or AIDS, each of which he chronicled in photo collections titled "Healing Changes" and "Keeping in Touch," or the homeless, captured in "Community Meals (A Reluctance to Engage)."

This time, Kilgore set out to photograph 100 black men for a project titled "Let There Be Light." Twenty of those images, all taken at Fayetteville High School's West Campus, are on exhibit through April 1 at the Fayetteville Public Library in honor of Black History Month. He says the images address the contradiction that a vital and important local community is often highly stereotyped while being at the same time largely invisible.

"Often when I tell my white friends about this project, they respond, 'But we have no black people in Northwest Arkansas,'" says Kilgore.

"Each photograph in the collection opens a channel for the viewer to gaze into the soul of the person photographed, thereby helping make black lives more relevant and visible," adds library spokeswoman Brandi Holt.

"The first group for this project were successful, mostly middle-aged men," Kilgore says, "and this was the second batch of photographs." Because he had a contact at West Campus, he says, "I got all the teenagers that we could include from a numerical point of view in one big shoot. It worked out nicely because it created a kind of cohesive group."

Parts of the collection were previously exhibited at St. James Baptist Church in Fayetteville, "where the boys in the project formed a panel and people were able to ask them questions," Kilgore says. "They're really an amazing group of young men."

Shooting for the project will continue elsewhere in the state as Kilgore has time and money.

"Sometimes I wish I had the financial resources to not have to spend any time dealing with income, so I could just photograph all the time. That hasn't happened," he says. "I have to spend part of my time figuring out how to buy new printers and pay the utility bills. Being a self-employed artist has its good news and bad news. You have a considerable amount of freedom but also a responsibility to keep the work going."

Winter, however, is "usually kind of a slow period," and Kilgore can often be found looking out the window, watching the light change and thinking about how it would appear in a photograph.

"Whenever I meet someone new, I'm immediately photographing them in my head," he admits. "Part of my mind is always photographing -- not just people."

But none of the people he's photographed for the "Let There Be Light" exhibition will see their names on a gallery wall.

"It seems important not to put any text on individual photos," he says. "I want there to be as little between the subject and the person looking at the picture as possible -- hoping to allow the heart to do the seeing instead of the mind. As soon as we see words, we start 'thinking' -- as much as possible I hope for people to be 'feeling' but in a very open way.

"My roommates in college said I was a hopeless idealist," he adds. "I guess I haven't changed that much."

NAN What's Up on 02/19/2016

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