To quote the retrospective of his work at the MoMA in 1981, “James Herbert uses the nude human form as a palette; his nudes are photographed, the footage is rephotographed, and the finished films are lyrical but unsentimental, detached but not clinical, and romantically sensual without prurience”.
“When Herbert practises rephotography, he ensures that the camera acquires a physicality. It becomes a limb. The Beaulieu adapts to his body. Herbert, who is also a painter, likens the fact of rephotographing a film to the repetition of a painting. The layer beneath may darken but the work in itself becomes more substantial, acquiring great hope” (Larry Kardish).
Apalachee, 1974, 35 mm, silent, 12 min; Three, 1974, 16 mm, silent, 21 min; Silk, 1977, 35 mm, silent, 25 min.
Copies by courtesy of the MoMA.
