Harry Goaz
Harry Goaz began his artistic career as a casual observer growing up in Texas and Oklahoma. His graceful nature allowed him access to some of the most exclusive enclaves of society, in which he developed his fine sense for the ironic. This skillset served him well when he picked up a camera and began photographing the world around him. Ultimately, he outgrew the rice fields of Texas and found his way to Los Angeles where a chance meeting and his graceful nature landed him the role he is so well known for on the television series Twin Peaks. This iconic role was followed by Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and another on Eerie Indiana before Goaz stepped back into the world of the camera where he feels most at home.
Ballroom Harry Vol. II
Ballroom Harry: Volume II picks up Goaz’s trail off of his work with David Lynch on Twin Peaks “The Return." Goaz, who is an avid photographer and consummate observer, enters spaces with a special invisibly to capture and transform the image he is hunting for. Nothing escapes him. His photos often obscure a more obvious target to find the nuance, the subtext, whether walking through an abandoned parking garage or sitting next to an international celebrity.
These photos themselves represent Harry’s subtle understanding and demeanor. There is a minimalistic calm that implies something electric just out of view. Tension spreads through- out deceivingly simple frames, like a peek into someone's medicine cabinet when they’re out of town. This first collection follows Goaz’s reprise and reassessment of his relationship with the character, Deputy Andy, along with a reunion of old friends. The playfulness of the subtitles of each photo speaks to Goaz’s own playful nature, and provide a subtle abstraction to a direct answer.
Why are Roger Daltrey’s shoes a better photo than the icon himself? These snapshots, further contextualized by the immediacy of our modern ability to capture of imagery, are more a mirror to the man himself than anything he might say. Inside the enigmatic world of his imagery, the viewer begins to understand why so many have taken to Harry’s social media to attempt to unwind his persona, and to get a glimpse of the man behind his elusive world of subtle ironies and distinct humanity.
Ballroom Harry: Volume II is a Talented Friends production offered by Deep Vellum Books in Dallas, TX.