Hoboken artist Brendan Carroll is exhibiting his new photographs this month at Maxwell’s (1039 Washington St., in Hoboken), but Carroll struggled for many years on his artistic journey to arrive at the level of show quality. Before he was an artistic photographer, Carroll was a painter. Carroll held onto a brush and pallet for four years at the University of Arts in Philadelphia before he realized that painting wasn’t his craft.
“I didn’t like it anymore,” said Carroll. ” I liked painting in school, but afterward, I had a hard time making stuff. I thought it sucked, so I made some pretty awful paintings. In school, there was more purpose, because I had assignments and there were girls, and homework, so there was stuff to do. School was a supportive environment. They kind of coddle you and everything is there for you, so when I graduated, it felt more like a funeral procession than anything else. You know when a baby gets over-stimulated and falls asleep? I felt like I was asleep for four years, and now I didn’t know what to do.”
So after he graduated in 1996, he focused on drawing pen and charcoal self-portraits. “It was like I was etching myself into existence,” said Carroll. “I was like I wasn’t really here. I had a hard time conceiving a believable space for myself.”
After two more years of studying at various art schools, working at bakeries but spending most of his time drinking and socializing at neighborhood bars, Carroll decided to move out of Philly with his roommates, hoping to become more focused on his career in art. Originally from South Brunswick, N.J., Carroll found his way back to New Jersey. He and his two college roommates moved into a Hoboken railroad apartment in 1998.
“When I first moved here, I went through six different jobs in practically every restaurant in Hoboken,” said Carroll. “I was in food service, and it sucks because you’re serving people. And because there are so many bars, you wind up spending most of your time drinking. I still wasn’t doing any art when I first moved here.”
Carroll was beginning to despise Hoboken until he became a waiter at Maxwell’s, one of Hoboken’s trendiest art and music clubs in Hudson County.
“I met a lot of artists, and I found out about the sense of kinship and community of the art world here,” said Carroll. “All the artists create an environment conducive to making artwork. There’s a really strong community here that just fosters creativity.”
After networking with several artists in Hoboken while working at Maxwell’s, he met local artist Jen Data, who gave him her Polaroid camera.
“I was always bitching about how I wasn’t doing any artwork, and Jen gave me the Polaroid camera and told me to make this work,” said Carroll. “She gave me a kick in the pants and forced me to get back into my work.”
Hoboken artist Mike Longo gave Carroll time to use his art studio on Newark Street for free, and Carroll’s creativity almost immediately kicked in as he began taking photographs.
“I made these little World War II German soldiers and painted them, and then I created different scenarios, like them entering a farmhouse that I made out of cardboard,” said Carroll. “The series looks like I’m hiding inside the farmhouse as they’re about to invade it.”
Using his instincts to manipulating natural and artificial light, Carroll said that he mostly relies on chance and accident for his photos to produce the shadowy images of soldiers clashing in battle.
“I create a cinematic sequence out of small intimate images,” said Carroll. “The Polaroids become the witness to what is going on.”
Carroll said that he’s learned to really appreciate the power of Polaroid camera.
“Polaroids are great, because the image comes out immediately; it’s like instant gratification,” said Carroll. “Polaroids are also really intimate and personal, because you can only be like eight feet away from the object.”
But Carroll said he only stands about five inches away from his set-up.
“I create this fictitious space and I get in really close try to control the levels of information,” said Carroll. “I try to see how much info I can leave out without losing the concept of the image. It makes the photos really intense.”
Brendan’s Carroll’s photos will be on display in the front bar and restaurant section of Maxwell’s through August 31. For more information about the exhibit, call Maxwell’s at 798-0406.