An International Photographer’s Stunning Work is Shown Off in Dallas: A Christmas Tree of Cigarettes is Just the Start

Artist. Perfectionist. Photographer. All three describe Geof Kern, whose sublime work has graced the pages of national and international magazines and is collected by the Musée Des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and other institutions.

Working with Kern is a lesson in conceptualism. Every photograph he takes is carefully constructed; he sketches his ideas and compositions in great detail before ever picking up the camera.

This month, Photographs Do Not Bend opens the show “Life, Death, Beauty and Garbage” that focuses on Kern’s portfolio from 1987 to 1997. The decade is one of the photographer’s most prolific, with clients from Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus to Rolling Stone and Esquire.

I covet his 10,000 Cigarettes from 1997, depicting a Christmas-tree-shaped pile of cigs in the center of a sterile, pink-carpeted living room. We adore Kern’s dark sense of humor.

Geof Kern, “Life, Death, Beauty and Garbage,” September 10 (with artist reception) through October 8, at Photographs Do Not Bend, 154 Glass St., 214.969.1852.