Body Rock Sand is the fruition of an idea generated in Ian Jacob's mind over fifty years ago by the gift of a book of photographs by French master Lucien Clergue, Née de la Vague (Born of the Waves). In its pages, Ian discovered a lasting inspiration ? the interplay of skin, sea and sand in its evocative black and white images captured his imagination and never truly faded. Returning to his native Pembrokeshire in 2010 provided Ian with an ideal canvas with which to develop a new multimedia portfolio of work over the course of six years and achieve his own creative vision. The final photographs are moments in time which capture the ever-shifting nature of the shore, its fleeting patterns and textures, exploring contrasts between the solidity of rock and the suppleness of the female form, the sensuous relationship between it and the sea, and, at their most experimental, creating new forms through the synthesis of a model with the surrounding landscape and natural features. They are the results of a process of care and craft, patience and perseverance, of battling tide, time and conditions to achieve the extraordinary. AUTHOR: Ian Jacob was born in the village of Llangwm, Pembrokeshire in 1950. After studying at Newport College of Art he went on to Gloucestershire College of Art, Cheltenham, followed by Goldsmiths College,London. A short period of exhibiting and teaching preceded a change in direction, and for over 30 years Ian enjoyed a successful marketing career based in London and New York. The longstanding plan to return to a career as a painter and photographer became a reality in 2010 when Ian returned to Llangwm. He has exhibited in Wales, England and America, and has had solo exhibitions at the West Wales Arts Centre, Fishguard, The Air Gallery, Dover Street, London, three separate exhibitions, including a retrospective, at the Museum of Modern Art, Machynlleth, and a 2011 exhibition at Picton Castle, Pembrokeshire. His work is in public collections at the National Library of Wales, the Museum of Modern Art, Machynlleth and the county collections of Pembrokeshire and Gloucestershire. Body Rock Sand represents the final chapter in a six-year journey and the fulfilment of a creative vision that has persisted for fifty years.
