Personal Background
Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Groover studied painting at the Pratt Institute, New York City (B.F.A., 1965), and the Ohio State University (M.F.A., 1970), but she turned to photography in 1971. After winning (1978) a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, she purchased her first large-format camera. Groover was influenced by the works of 14th- and 15th-century still-life masters as well as those of Paul Cézanne and Giorgio Morandi and by the stop-action imagery of British photographer Eadweard Muybridge. In 1991 Groover and her husband, painter Bruce Boice, became disenchanted with American politics and moved to France. There, she used an even larger camera to capture images of churches, graveyards, and landscapes.
Style
Jan Groover is often included in discussions about the "new" color photographers of the early 1970s because of her preference and proficiency with emerging color technologies. She first gained recognition for the serial diptychs and triptychs of automobiles, highways, and city streets she made using the 35mm format and color film. A triptych is a work of art that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. Triptychs are forms made popular in medieval and Renaissance art, so she probably took inspiration from those. Groover’s primary focus—one that she returned to throughout her career—was still life, a subject long practiced by painters.
Philosophy
Jan Groover experimented with combinations of objects until a relationship of shapes, colors, and spaces pleased her. Groover’s approach to her still life was a formalist approach. “Formalism is everything,” she commented. Groover looked at the objects in her still lifes for their shapes, lines, colors, and textures. Sometimes it is difficult to recognize if the objects are in the foreground, middle ground, or background. According to Groover, the meaning of the objects is of no importance; only the shape, texture, and form that falls into a particular space is important.
Influences
Groover was influenced by the works of 14th- and 15th-century still-life masters. She’s also influenced by triptychs, which were popular in medieval and Renaissance art. She was also influenced by Paul Cézanne and Giorgio Morandi and by the stop-action imagery of British photographer Eadweard Muybridge. I was influenced by the way she takes the reflections of the metal forks, spoons, knives, etc and combines all of them in an image. I also like how instead of presenting a precisely composed picture, her photos look like they were placed randomly and it gives the photo a more lively feeling.
Compare and Contrast
Untitled (Kitchen utensils), 1979–1979 Spoon, Forks and Knives
This photo was pretty hard for me to recreate because the reflections could never be the exact same. I also didn't have a metal table or board, so I just used my kitchen counter because it's the least distracting. It was also very hard to find the angle because if I'm too close to the objects then my reflection will show on the spoon. I took this photo several times. I'm pretty satisfied on how this picture turned out.
Untitled, 1978 Kitchen Objects
This photo was probably the hardest to recreate, because it was really hard to get the brownish tone but I tried my best. It was really fun arranging the objects, but I couldn't make them exactly look like the picture. The fork on the plate kept falling off so I had to use an object to keep it in place, so I had to crop out some of the right side of the image. Because the spoons and the forks were too short, they would fall inside the pot so I couldn't arrange them properly.
Untitled, 1984-1984 Two Pears
I took this photo by putting 2 pieces of paper on the ground, one as a background. To make the background effect, I wrinkled the paper and then unwrinkled it. I also tried to recreate the shadows in Jan Groover's picture, and then I make the picture black and white. I think the final photo looks pretty similar to the original.
Artist Statement
I really enjoyed taking all these pictures, and I was really happy with the final result. Jan Groover takes a lot of kitchen objects and I really liked how she portrayed even the simplest daily objects so beautifully, so I chose the pictures that I liked the most. The first picture depicts how even the simplest daily objects can become a pretty picture. The second picture shows how the arrangement of a picture can change everything. She somehow makes the messy kitchen objects look artistic. The third picture shows how using a unique background can make the photo more interesting. Instead of taking a normal pear picture with a smooth background, Jan Groover picked a textured background to make the photo more unique. I learned a lot from trying to replicate these pictures.