J-F Vergel - Web Cam Performer

J-F Vergel is a New York City based photographer. Self-taught, his work has been shown in two NYC solo shows in 2008 and 2009, in 2010 he was chosen to participate in Curate NYC’s Emerging Artist Show at the RUSH Gallery and in 2011 two pieces were chosen for the New York Photo Festival’s juried show, “Provocation”, at the powerHouse Arena in DUMBO. In the last few years, J-F Vergel has been experimenting with color and action using digital cameras in the interest of pressing the boundaries of technology. The Web Cam series was shot off the computer screen from free adult chat rooms found on the Internet. The series illustrates voyeurism; facilitated and even normalized on the Web. The performers employ contrived seductions to entice a guest into joining them in a private chat room for a fee. Their identities are intentionally not revealed yet capture the absurd and occasionally grotesque details that humanize them: a grimacing sneer instead of smile, a broken fingernail, etc. Web cam sex shows are Peep Show Palaces in the age of the Internet. It is rich in kitsch: gaudy décors and objectionable colors… and just as brazen. But behind the implied complicity of voyeurism and seduction there still lurks the shady business of exploitation. Large format prints enhance the “noise”; a visual indication of distance between the performers and viewers that emphasizes the artifice of “relationship” and breaks the images away from base desires on a computer screen to the wall… as art.