Dear Art Lovers,

The new year began unusually quietly for me, perhaps even a little too quietly. Yet there was something precious in this calm: the time and space to devote myself entirely to my work as a photographer and author. During these weeks, I revamped my website jemsaylorart.com, and created a virtual gallery there. It allows visitors to view some of my work in a three-dimensional space - almost as if wandering through a small, quiet exhibition.

There have also been developments on the photographic front. My Dark Side Of Cologne series has grown with several new images. At the same time, as announced in my first newsletter, I have begun a new series entitled Broken & Rusty. In it, I portray old, damaged objects and vehicles - relics of matter and time, ennobled by rust, use, and transience. Objects that tell stories of the past without saying a single word. Looking back, it almost seems as if I unconsciously anticipated these turbulent times with this series. Wars leave precisely such traces: destroyed objects, broken structures, rusting remnants of human hubris. And indeed, our world currently seems to be passing through one of the most conflict-ridden periods since the Second World War. The war in Ukraine continues to accompany us, and new tensions and conflicts have emerged, as if the carousel of world politics is spinning faster and faster.

For someone who wants nothing to do with such conflicts, this often leaves only a feeling of powerlessness. One stands in the midst of it all, aware of how little one can do to alter its course. It feels as if gravity itself has been taken away - as if one loses one’s grounding and begins to drift.

Of course, this does not leave me, as an artist, untouched. The news of the past weeks initially weighed heavily on me and slowed my thoughts -perhaps a form of inner self-protection. All the more reason for me to be grateful that photography and writing offer small islands of concentration.

And so, slowly, a quiet optimism begins to grow again within me. For no matter how dark times may appear, they too will pass. Eventually, we will once again speak more about the beautiful sides of life - about the many forms of art and literature.

Until then, I hope that my work can take you away from the noise of the world, if only for a moment. I wish you a happy Easter.

Sincerely

Jem Saylor