Jeff Hulett and Alex Smythe have been friends for years — “old school friends,” Hulett calls them. They play soccer together, sometimes in the wee hours of the morning. Smythe helps Hulett with home projects on occasion, and Hulett, a musician and songwriter, is there for Smythe’s photography shows. At one of these shows — at Otherlands Coffee Bar — the two decided to do something they hadn’t done together before: collaborate artistically. The result has been their dual show, “Emotions Without People,” on display in Church Health’s Estes Ruleman Gallery of Art through August 29th.
In the show, Smythe’s photos are paired with a song written by Hulett and accessed via QR code. (Visitors are encouraged to bring headphones, though some will be available to borrow.) Handwritten lyrics are framed on the wall.
“We’ve used the catchphrase, ‘a photographic call and response,’” Smythe says. “That was kind of the original thought of the project, where we could interpret each other’s work through song and photograph.”
Hulett (who plays with Snowglobe or his latest combo, Jeff Hulett & the Hand Me Downs) already had a few partially written songs, ideas for melodies. Over the course of two years or so, the two would drive around together, Smythe stopping to take photos, Hulett playing rough mixes of his songs, both offering feedback. “From one of Alex’s images, I would kind of flesh it out by using his image,” Hulett says. “We’re trying to figure out, like, could that work with this?”
Thus, a symbiotic relationship between photographer and musician was formed, both finding inspiration in the other and in each other’s chosen medium. “I think there was definitely a vulnerability there and in never working on an artistic project like this with Alex,” Hulett says. “It was interesting, and I learned a lot throughout the process, just about his process, what it takes.”
For Smythe, he’s found Hulett’s songwriting process has changed the way he looks at his own work. “When photographers are talking, they immediately jump into some buzz words, like more technical photographic terms when speaking on each other’s work; whereas, having a musician talk about your work, I thought about melody. We are looking at a still image, in which generally a person’s not thinking about the melody or cadence or rhythm of a piece as much as they would when they’re talking to a musician. And that was something that I got to dive into with some of those photographs, which I’m definitely going to continue to do. We just asked, ‘If this photograph had a chorus, what would it be?’”
Typically, Smythe shoots landscapes, he says. “This sounds kind of cheesy, but somewhere where emotions are not necessarily shooting people.”
“We kind of came up with the name first because we noticed all of his pictures don’t have people in them,” Hulett adds, “but they evoke such great emotions and feelings.”
By putting a song with a photograph, Hulett and Smythe do not intend to dictate a viewer’s interpretation of these emotions but rather to enhance the experience, they say. The songs might make you look at a photo differently, or a photo might make you listen to a lyric differently — “In some ways, they’re together, but they’re separate, you know,” Hulett says.
No matter the emotion or interpretation gained, they both hope viewers take their time, a break from their day, their thoughts, to stand with the photos and with the music, to look and listen — “for at least the length of a song,” Smythe says.
“Emotions Without People” is on display through August 29th in the Estes Ruleman Gallery of Art at Church Health, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Twenty percent of the proceeds of art sold will go to Church Health. Hulett’s songs from the show have been compiled into an album, Emotions Without People, available for streaming.
