Spencer Amadeus’ photographs are a contradiction. As the paint from a long abandoned playground toy curls, flakes and disappears; revealing the industrial colored metal underneath, one is reminded of what really underlies the bright colors that all too easily abandons it. Yet this is not something that needs a new coat of paint, but rather a redefinition. This photograph urges the viewer to re evaluate its subject, rather than to despair and yearn for its past. Through such works, spencer at once isolates the viewer and at the same time, invites him or her back into a revaluation of that which has lost its value.
Educated at Ringling School of Art and Design and growing up in a handful of different places before that, spencer’s fascination with interpersonal isolation and displacement comes across in a strong way in his work. He holds degrees in both graphic interactive communication and photo digital imaging, which contribute in no small way to the graphic nature of his projects.
Whether or not you find yourself or some other profound entity in his work is not the matter in question. The environment is not destroyed by the shopping cart in the midst of it, but rather supplemented. Within each photograph resounds the claim, “This is your world! Accept it!” If it is too brutal to accept, a sunset will always be there to distract you; to help you see something worth accepting. spencer’s projects are not about the truth, but about finding any way to avoid it.