Into Darkness documentary (video still). View Teaser >>

ABOUT

Turn of the century French chronophotographer Étienne-Jules Marley was interested in photographic based movement and was pioneering innovative ways to capture the this in people and objects. At the end of his life he developed a smoke machine to record the the movement of smoke trails as they passed over various objects. They visually showed how the smoke was interrupted and altered depending on their placement within the smokes path. Marley’s introduction of objects to interrupt the smoke’s path influenced Irby Pace as he injected smoke into the landscape to disrupt the visual spaces that they temporarily inhabit. The floating phenomenons fill the void of the urban and natural landscapes. The physical space is altered with real floating colorful clouds of smoke which are allowed to combine with nature to dictate the shape and duration and are captured to show the momentary glimpse of the change in the vacant space. By using crude and readily available resources, Pace is experimenting with the tension of upward or outward movement against the downward force of gravity, creating the illusion of gravity defiance. Pace’s photographic investigation takes place in and between the states of Alabama and Texas, his home state. The work is influenced by these banal spaces which are chosen for their lack of content. Through the photographic process they are made tangible once again, if only for a small moment of time.

Irby Pace was born in Odessa, Texas. In 2005 he moved to Lubbock, Texas to attended Texas Tech University where he received his BFA in Photography. He received his MFA from The University of North Texas in 2012. Pace is currently an Assistant Professor of photography at Troy University in Troy, Alabama. His work has been featured in Wired Magazine, The Huffington Post, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, The Dallas Observer, Paper City, Patron, among other sites, blogs, and online magazines. Pace’s work was featured on the cover of the November 2013 issue of The Dallas Observer. In 2012 he was awarded “The Best of 2012: Best Art Heist” and was considered one of “The 12 Most Newsworthy Moments of 2012.”

Please note: This is only a small selection of Irby’s available images, please send us an email to request a full list. The artist also prints in larger sizes 36x55” and 42x63".