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About the Artist: Jack Alterman
A native of Charleston and an award-winning photographer, Jack Alterman was first drawn to photography in 1968 while serving as a marine in Okinawa, Japan. After his discharge in 1970, Alterman enrolled at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. He returned home a decade later to establish Alterman Studios, specializing in commercial photography.
Alterman’s work has been displayed locally at the Gibbes Museum of Art and as part of several Piccolo Spoleto festivals. Farther afield, he has exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution and in Spoleto, Italy. Alterman is the author of two books, Cornices of Charleston (2005) and My City Charleston (2015). He is deeply inspired by people and place. Through several portraiture series, including The Bridge Builders, East Siders Matters, the 500 Block of King Street, and Faces of the Lowcountry, Alterman has explored how poignant renderings of individuals can collectively foster a better understanding of community.
For this exhibition, Alterman has collaborated with Kaminer Haislip and Leigh Magar to present the interwoven legacies of indigo and silver as well as their contemporary impact through the lens of portraiture. Portraying Haislip, Magar, and other Charleston artists who derive inspiration from these materials, Alterman’s latest series highlights color, texture, creation, and community.
“When I began this collaboration with an indigo artist and a silversmith, my thoughts were mainly focused on the raw materials with which they worked. Then I expanded my vision to capture a wide variety of contemporary artists who use indigo and silver in their own artistic vision–whether it’s a view of the night sky or the reflection of sunlight in water, or the actual materials themselves. Each of these individuals is unique but all are connected by this time, this place, and their use of the shades of indigo and silver as they seek to capture the Lowcountry’s distinctive culture.”
