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"There are three portions or persons of Eros that have been classically differentiated: himeros, or physical desire for the immediately present to be grasped in the heat of the moment; anteros, or answering love; and pothos, the longing toward the unattainable, the ungraspable, the incomprehensible, that idealization which is attendant upon all love and which is always beyond capture ... the motive force that drives desire ever onward, as the portion of love that is never satisfied by actual loving or possession of the object. It is the fantasy factor that pulls the chariot beyond immediacy, like the seizures that took Alexander and like Ulysses's desire for "home." (Excerpted from A Blue Fire, Selected Writings of James Hillman. Edited by Thomas Moore)

 A couple of years ago I was meeting with a gallery director, showing him some work, and he cut me off abruptly about half way through my presentation saying, "These are photographer's photographs and of absolutely NO commercial interest," and he walked out of the room.

Well, I had a moment of real confusion there, because I think he had gotten it at least partly right. These are photographs which are about photography to a very large extent and I think this is an achievement. The photographs here may have been taken in Mexico, but they are not necessarily very Mexican in nature.
essay continued

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Click photo to view Jonathan Bailey's work.
Jonathan Bailey's essay adapted from a talk he gave at the opening of the POTHOS exhibition, Maine Coast Artists Gallery (Rockport, Maine), October 13, 1995.

To learn more about the artist, go to Jonathan Bailey's contact and background information page.

David Rees, associate professor in the Photojournalism Department, Missouri School of Journalism, guest curated Jonathan Bailey's work for this exhibit.