Friday night on the fifth floor of the Marshall Building the Portrait Society Gallery staged a birthday party. Legendary Milwaukee photographer Francis Ford opened his new exhibition featuring his “novelty model,” as Jack Eigel enjoys calling himself. The “Men at Leisure” exhibition celebrated living life to the fullest with these humorous and witty images that also acknowledged Ford's 66th birthday, exactly on this September 16th date.
The poignant event also honored the collaboration between Ford and Eigel that was introduced by an exhibition in 2000, with two more following in the years afterwards. Debra Brehmer's Portrait Society Gallery hosted the fourth edition to this series after a five-year lapse. Yet, those five years proved to be prophetic because both men faced death square in the eyes, similar to looking directly through a camera lens, with two different and critical heart problems.
Eigel, only 55, required a heart transplant after his own heart muscle deteriorated beyond being functional, which was then completed at Milwaukee's Froedert Hospital. One would never know Eigel was a heart recipient from the way he buoyantly chatted and greeted the gallery visitors on opening night, all smiles and ever charming.
Two medical practitioners from the transplant unit attended the opening and exclaimed the exhibition was all quite wonderful. They talked about how Eigel was a fabulous patient and inspiration through his attitude, his ability to go for almost anything (now visible in these inventive images) and his great outlook on life. Qualities that enabled him to recover and manage his new heart well. And allowed him to collaborate on one more photo exhibition with Ford.
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Ford was jubilant, talking to guests while accepting wishes for many more years ahead. He had suffered an aortic aneurysm, or bleeding from the main artery to the heart. Few people survive the injury, much less the surgery to correct the bleeding because this happens so suddenly and the aorta is imperative to maintaining blood flow to the entire body and brain. Ford beat those slim odds and has fully recovered to return to the photography he loves.
A Canon camera slung over his shoulder at the opening, Ford stopped for a few minutes in an attempt to answer several questions. He mentioned a digital camera allowed him the freedom to take pictures of anything because you were no longer using precious film. Now if the picture was not print worthy, the photographer can just delete it instead of developing a poor picture. He believed going digital encouraged that pure freedom to take a picture of absolutely anything, even the lonely chair in the gallery. His excitement was contagious.
Ford was willing to answer more questions, but guests kept interrupting with hand shakes, hugs and well wishes. And he deserved them all that special evening so the interview ended as quickly as it began. Who would have prevented him from enjoying every moment and visitor on this particular happy birthday?
The Eigel-Ford exhibition presents a surreal element in life that embodies everything these two men have experienced. Brehmer's insightful essay on the exhibition explains Eigel chooses the clothes and settings, even the titles to the photographs. On opening night, visitors enjoyed pictures titled Edward Scissors Hands, an image where a huge spoon and fork replace the shears on Eigel's limbs. Or I Picked a Lemon in the Garden of Love Where Only Peaches Grow. Smile at another image titled Jelly Queen Proclaims It's My Life and I Want No Other.
Perhaps this image title states the obvious truism on a signifcant birthday. Eigel and Ford have the lives they love, they want no other. More importantly, with whatever Eigel stages and wears while Ford photographs, these theatrical narratives discover the absurdity within life itself. Fortuitous moments such as obtaining another person's heart or miraculously surviving a frequently fatal heart bleed only destiny can account for. After being surrounded by a hospital regimen and sterile white rooms, the color photographs and wild scenes speak to a lusty enthusiasm for the days ahead.
Gallery A features the new “Men at Leisure” images while Gallery B and the Lounge display a greatest hits in the prints from the three previous Eigel and Ford exhibitions. Visit PS Gallery some Friday or Saturday afternoon when your world has come crashing down, or one needs to be reminded that life is precious and every minute appreciated. Chuckle, observe with childlike wonder and then imagine yourself in other places, in these distorted and wacky scenes. Then jump and shout and do something crazy for merely being alive to celebrate this new photography collaboration with Eigel and Ford in tribute to their medical rebirths. Discover the pleasurable leisure in life. PS: Enjoy every day of your 66th year, Francis, and your 55th, Jack!
(Portrait Society Gallery presents Men at Leisure on the Fifth Floor of theMarshall Building in the Historic Third Ward through November 6.)
