Jim Breukelman: Altered States

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Jim Breukelman, "Read, Eat, Chat and Pay," 1966

archival pigment digital print from original negatives, 24" x 43" (courtesy of the artist)

Viewers sometimes wonder why there are no people in Jim Breukelman’s photographs.

That may be true for many of Breukelman’s well-known series, including Hot Properties, his exquisite portraits of vanishing single-family homes that reveal the personality of the people who lived in them. Works from that series are in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the Vancouver Art Gallery. One house was even featured on a 2013 postal stamp.

But Breukelman’s early photographs of an American diner, on exhibit for the first time as part of Altered States, at the West Vancouver Art Museum until May 11, are brimming with people.

Breukelman began photographing Sanson’s Diner in an industrial area in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1966 after he and a friend happened upon the eatery when they pulled in for a snack while driving to Boston.

“The place looked ordinary from the outside – aging, simple and unadorned – but the atmosphere inside turned out to be vibrant,” Breukelman recalls in the exhibition catalogue. “I was taken by surprise and absolutely hooked.”

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Jim Breukelman, "Mary Sprucing-Up the Entrance," 1966

archival pigment digital print from original negatives, 24" x 33" (courtesy of the artist)

Breukelman, then studying at the Rhode Island School of Design in nearby Providence, returned many times to eat and also began shooting black-and-white images of the patrons.

“This was my first major project photographing a group of people in depth, over time, in order to get to know them and tell a small part of their story,” says Breukelman, who moved the following year to Vancouver to start the photography program at what is now the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. “The experience was intoxicating.”

One photo shows a man seated at the diner’s counter, his head obscured by a newspaper. People move around him, slightly out of focus. But the man is highlighted sharply as if in a cone of light. Viewers can see his frayed shirt cuff and greased-back hair as well as the shiny rim of his stool. The photo is paired with another crowded counter scene that shows a man getting ready to pay. The duo is titled Read, Chat, Eat, and Pay.

Another pairing, The Telling-Off, shows a waitress glaring at a patron in one image and a woman putting on her coat to leave, indignation on her face, in the other. They definitely tell a story, much like other works in the series.

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Jim Breukelman, "Mesocosm #24," 2003

digital C-print, 34" x 40" (courtesy of the artist)

The show’s second part features work from three of Breukelman’s more recent series. Included are After Life (2001-2002), which documents specimens in a Vancouver taxidermy store; Mesocosm (2003), which pictures a failed biosphere experiment; and Planted Life (2002-2018), which features gardens and a conservatory interior, reflecting Breukelman’s interest in natural and artificial places.

Breukelman sees one over-arching theme that links his work: “We effect the spaces we occupy.” ■

Altered States is on view at the West Vancouver Art Museum from March 20 to May 11, 2019.