Art View

By Paulette Thenhaus

Ted and Steve Tourlentes: Brothers in Art

Like day and night the Tourlentes brothers, Ted and Steve, turn their cameras’ focus on opposite worlds. Ted Tourlentes discovers the colorful, close-up world of native prairie plants, going extinct, while Steve Tourlentes hunts nocturnally with his camera to capture distant views of prison complexes in desolate landscapes.

Ted isn’t simply photographing beautiful plants, he’s carefully documenting and recording the 3,000 endangered acres of native Illinois prairie. His motivation is prairie restoration and conservation. But the artful compositions of his full-blown images don’t reveal the real threat of urbanization. Only accompanying exhibit hand-outs state the sad statistics. Though the exhibit is a start, it leads me to suggest a photo book with text. A book (or website) may present the abundant research more relevantly than a gallery of breath-taking flowers fully alive with color.

Steve’s large-scale (approx. 28” x 30”) black and white photographs, made under the cover of night, have the chilling air of secrecy and surveillance. Since the images are of prison complexes, almost hidden in remote terrains, the darkness only adds to the sinister aspects of their punitive functions. Stark artificial light is the only light. As a criminal hides the crime, the prison system masks its own existence — at least that’s what the photographs suggest.

One thing both brothers have in common is using photographic beauty to shed light on their environmental and social causes.

The photographs are now on view around the Round Room at Knox College’s Ford Center for the Arts.

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