Young Baroque Masters

Over the last five years, I have been photographing artisans while they work and have seen repeatedly a kind of radiance that comes from the artisan at their craft whether it is changing a tire in a garage, baking bread, or making sausage. I began using a simple form of lighting to make these WORK portraits made popular by artists like Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Jan Shteen—the Dutch Masters. While I have photographed musicians in performance, I have found that mostly that: performance. My friend Roger suggested that I had not found musical artisans, just artists and they can be difficult. I began this project over a year ago after several conversations with Arnaud Pumir and Sylvie Demay. At the time, the Music a Gagnières annual schedule was being produced. The association brings incredible national baroque musicians to Gagnières each month and not one of them has a proper portrait; certainly nothing to reflect the intense connection between the PERSON, the INSTRUMENT, and their WORK, in this case producing MUSIC. They agreed to let me photograph these incredible musical craftsmen during their final repetition before the performance. I would arrive at the church and photographed them while they prepared for their performance as they became absorbed in their WORK. THEN I would ask to take their portrait with that radiance still aglow in their face. Daniel JACKSON