The Angry Saint, 2004

The woman with the mallet was a professional actor, musician, and dancer. Jeremy knew her in high school, and he asked her to come and pose for a shoot. He had just finished reading H.G. Wells' The Croquet Player and was partly inspired by the story. When she asked what part she was to play, he told her, "Pretend you're being driven insane by the indifference around you." She took the stance and looked like she was ready to kill somebody. She had just broken up with her boyfriend the night before.

Antony and Cleopatra, 2004

Victorian photographers have been a major influence on Jeremy's work. It was seeing Lewis Carrol's Saint George and the Dragon for the first time that inspired him to stage tableaux in the first place. He was fascinated by the Victorian idea that the camera recorded only facts, yet their artists would stage elaborate costumed tableaux reenacting fantastic scenes from literature and history. The production qualities of these Victorian images were quite amateurish by today's standards, often times with only an old blanket or two serving as a backdrop. Before the advent of real photojournalism, Carrol, along with Julia Margaret Cameron, Oscar Gustave Rejlander and a host of many others would go as far as staging scenes depicting the plight of the poor. Jeremy was fascinated with how the Victorians entertained themselves. There was no TV. He liked the idea of having people over for a spot of tea and crumpets to enact and photograph a scene from Shakespeare.

The Seduction of Kathee Davies, 2004

Buddy Hopkins is a hypnotherapist and one of the world's foremost UFO-ologists. He first came into prominence during the eighties when his patient, Kathee Davies described while under hypnosis, being levitated out her apartment and onto an alien spacecraft where she had sexual intercourse with extraterrestrial beings. He wrote a book about his research and his patient whose name he chose to change in order to protect her identity. Soon after the publication of his book, there was a sudden rash of reports from people all over the world who had had similar encounters with little green men and women from another planet. Needless to say, support groups sprung up everywhere almost over night.

Jeremy feels it's not for him to give a definitive answer in regards to the existence of extraterrestrials. Be it fact or fiction, this piece was intended to illustrate the event that allegedly occurred aboard this space ship. Most of the information regarding this scene he found on the internet.

Today, Kathee Davies claims to have been abducted countless times since. In her free time she enjoys a comfortable life on the lecture circuit and maintains a small web site of her own. Buddy Hopkins is still doing research and writing books.

The Disco Queen, 2004

Jeremy loves the Orientalist paintings of Hans Zatzka and Eugene Delacroix and the faux exoticism of Eastern life that they intended to portray. These paintings create a world of belly dancers and harem intrigue that romanticized a way of life that really only existed in the imagination of the 19th century mind.

Like the Orient, disco is a phenomenon of the past that is easy to romanticize. The imaginary world of platform shoes and mirror balls has come to be synonymous with the overt, carefree decadence of the 1970's. But the beauty of disco music is not just it's peppy, irresistible beat, but it's lack of depth and it's disposability. Somehow, for Jeremy, it's come to represent the commodification of everything in our culture, from art to even love.

The Jungle Princess, 2003

The incongruities found of many of the images found in pinup photography reveal certain ironies that are not lost on Jeremy. Much of his work spotlights these images and how we accept them as a part of the continuum of our visual culture. For instance, how many pictures have been taken of a leopard print bikini against a leopard print backdrop? As a reality, the notion of a sexy woman in make up stalking prey in the jungle is completely absurd, yet it is presented time and time again as a fantasy.

The model, a professional mask maker, made this costume an hour before the shoot.

The Death of Balder, 2004

In Norse myth, Balder was the god of beauty and goodness. Everyone loved Balder.

Odin was the father of the gods. Although he had only one eye, he could see into the future. One day, Odin had a premonition that his son Balder would be killed and his death would be the harbinger of the apocalypse, or Ragnarok to the Vikings. Finding this out from her husband, Frigg, the mother of Balder, was upset. She walked the earth and made everything in the universe, be it big or small, swear an oath not to harm Balder in any way.

As a result, Balder had become impervious to everything. The gods made a game of throwing things a him. Pebbles and spears alike would bounce off of him doing no harm whatsoever. Balder was quite the hit at parties, and the gods would drink mead an partake in the fun and enjoyment of throwing things at Balder.

Loki, the trickster, was used to being the center of attention and grew jealous of Balder and the fun being had by all of the gods because of him. Knowing of the oaths made by everything in the universe, he turned himself into an old woman and asked Frigg if there was anything she may have overlooked. She didn't get an oath from mistletoe. The lowly plant was too young in the world and too small for her to consider it a threat to her son.

Loki fashioned a dart from a piece of mistletoe and gave it to Balder's brother, Hod. Hod was blind and didn't usually join in the fun of throwing things at Balder, but Loki guided his hand and the dart struck home. Balder was killed instantly.

Still Life with Burning Skyscraper, 2004

The image of figures plummeting from a burning tower has come to be its own horrific zeitgeist in the consciousness of the modern age. Ironically, this image dates back centuries was used as a divinatory illustration. It represents the overthrow of an existing form in order to make room for the new. The lightning, symbolizing a momentary glimpse of truth, destroys the materialistic life of selfish ambition.

Alison, 2003

They met at a warehouse party in Oakland. Alison was painfully shy and had incredible difficulty with making eye contact. She was one of Jeremy's first models and posed in several of his images over the years.

The Magician, 2003

It has been an old, but unofficial tradition for artists to portray themselves as seers, wise men or magicians. Sandro Bottecelli placed himself within the crowd in his 1475 version of Adoration of the Magi. Sir Edward Burne-Jones portrayed himself in his 1898 painting entitled The Wizard. Photographer William Mortensen donned a top hat, coat with tails and cane for his 1940 self portrait. Like the artist, it is the nature of the magician to bring ideas into manifestation.

A few people have been able to recognize the reference of the iconic tarot card of the same title in this self portrait. So far, only one has noticed the reference to Jeremy's favorite movie, Saturday Night Fever.

The Death of Eris, 2003

Eris is the Greek goddess of Discord, or Strife. In Classical Myth, her day in the sun came when she was the only one amongst the gods who wasn't invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Feeling a little slighted, Eris was determined to somehow spoil the party from which she'd been excluded. She took a golden apple and on it inscribed the word, Kalliste, meaning "to the fairest", and threw it into the throng of divine guests that reveled in the palaces of Mount Olympus. Hera, Athene and Aphrodite, who had been chatting amiably together, each saw the apple as it rolled up to their feet, not knowing for whom it was intended. With each of them feeling that she was the one who deserved the apple, a fight broke out amongst the three goddesses. Zeus, being the father of them all and king of all the gods, didn't want to be bothered with this petty cat fight and decided that a mortal man named Paris would decide who was the fairest of them all. Ultimately, Paris' decision led to the Trojan War. Eris managed to spoil the party and have the last laugh.

To this day, Eris is worshipped by groups such as The Eris Society, The 23 Apples of Eris and The Society of Discord. They tend to be loosely knit groups of people who consider themselves to be free thinkers and individualists. In a sense, Eris has come to represent a kind of intellectual anarchism and her followers believe that structured civilization is the work of the devil. The Erisians found a bit of notoriety when they were portrayed as the freedom fighters who challenged The Illuminati in Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's The Illuminatus Trilogy.

The Illuminati are sort of the godfather of conspiracy theories. Established in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, The Illuminated Seers of Bavaria were a secret society that started as an esoteric group associated with The Freemasons, Satan worship, The Knights Templar and even Atlantis. There are those that believe that The Illuminati have been secretly running the world since the dawn of human history, and although the group was effectively disbanded by the end of the eighteenth century, the influence of the order's legend lives on until this day. In fact, their symbol of the eye within the pyramid appears on the back of the dollar bill.

Jeremy does not adhere to the belief that there is a Secret World Government, a Grand Satanic Conspiracy nor a Great and Powerful Oz that is actually running the world from behind a shiny emerald curtain. It is far too easy to blame the all of the world's ills on a shadowy puppet master that no one can prove exists. He feels that there is a cultural conspiracy of consumerist ideals of which all of us are willing victims. From the minute we are born, we are constantly bombarded with commercials until the day we die. As time marches on, the public is gradually letting the reigns of mass media fall into the hands the few that own almost everything. They own the TV networks, the airwaves, the billboards, the newspapers and everything that they advertise like the clothes we wear, the foods we eat and the music we listen to. Everything we see, hear, taste and touch is very tightly controlled, and from the get go, we are told that the only way to define ourselves is to purchase prefabricated accouterments from the local convenience store. Knowing that the human race is resilient enough to create it's own culture whenever it needs to, the powers that be have learned that the best way to make money from this spirit of individuality is to co-opt it when it appears and then sell it back to us for twice the price.

A Feast in the Underworld, 2003

The Greek myths are fraught with dysfunctional relationships. None of the gods like each other and are are always fighting amongst themselves for personal gain. They are spiteful and immature. Incest is rampantly commonplace. Reading the Greek myths is much like watching any daytime soap of today.

Jeremy used the gods to depict a disastrous holiday dinner. From right to left, the players are: Persephone, Demeter, Adonis, Aphrodite, Hecate, Dionysus and Pirithous. Have been the child of divorced parents, Jeremy came to dread the holidays and all of the family functions that came with stepparents and strange in-laws. Somehow, he found reassurance in finding that even the gods can't stand dinner with their family.

Birthday, 2004

Alison liked to dress up as insane or villainous women from history or literature. She liked the movie Grey Gardens and dressed as Edie Beale for Halloween. Once, she dressed as Courtney Love. This picture is of Alison in her Baby Jane costume.

Doctor and Nurse, 2004

The doctor and nurse are a couple that are friends of Jeremy. They dressed in scrubs one year for Halloween and hence, the idea for the photo was born. Jeremy made the syringe out of electrical tape, acrylic tubing and old lamp parts.

Lisabell of Arc, 2003

Having been born and raised in Berkeley, California, Jeremy is painfully aware of how women have been portrayed in art throughout the ages. There being countless schools of thought on the subject, Jeremy usually chooses to portray women as people in charge of carving out their own destiny.

In some instances, cultural identity plays a role in his work - Jeremy loves Orientalist paintings and old pinups. In both of these styles of art, it's common for white women to be portrayed as exotic belly dancers or Native American princesses. Once again, the irony is not to be lost on Jeremy. Jeremy likes to think that these stories and these archetypes belong to everyone and should be co-opted and transformed whenever humanly possible.

Lisabell, a close personal friend of Jeremy, had just returned from a year of living in Paris.

Airplane, 2004

A facet of Jeremy's work is the juxtaposition of what is real with what is perceived to be real. Although the camera can accurately record what it sees, the artist is in control of the environment being recorded. Jeremy believes that if the subject represents something else that is real, then the subject itself is real. In this case, this cheap wooden glider suspended from strings in front of a painted back drop is an airplane soaring majestically through the clouds. Reality is subjective.

Shelby Button, 2003

Shelby Button was an San Francisco based artist who move there from Oklahoma in the early nineties. A sort of dandy, his work included performance, painting and a mail order catalog. His mail order catalog advertised his paintings, watercolors, tee shirts, a screen play and even included a centerfold of the artist himself. Jeremy knew him from an old job and had the cloud backdrop painted especially for this photograph.

The Delphic Rachel, 2003

Rachel had seen Jeremy's work through a mutual friend. She had never posed in a photograph before, but she asked him if she could sit for one. After deciding to go with a floral theme, Jeremy portayed her as The Delphic Sibyl. The Delphic Sibyl was an oracle who wrote her prophecies on bay leaves.

The Stag Lord, 2003

The horned god Cernunnos appears in myths all over the world, but is largely associated with Celtic mythology. His likeness appears in some of the earliest known cave paintings depicting the hunt. Although there is very little known about him, he is considered to be a sort of male fertility god. He is sometimes flanked by various animals and could be the lord of the forest. Perhaps there is ritual significance is connected to the cycle of fertility symbolized by the yearly shedding of antlers. To Jeremy, there is nothing that represents modern manhood more than barbecuing meat and watering the lawn on a Sunday in the suburbs.

The Dee Jay, 2004

The universe exists in a stasis of constant change. The trick is to find a sense of harmony within this perpetual flow of movement and to keep many different propositions going at once. The Dee Jay, in her quest to keep the house rocking, must skillfully navigate these changes and be flexible enough to make a smooth segue from one song to the next.

Hera, 2003

Hera, the wife of Zeus, was the queen of the gods, the heavens and Olympus. She was considered the goddess of women, the type of virtuous womanhood, wife and mother. As Zeus was the sky god, she was the sky goddess. Their marriage was tumultuous and the ancients attributed stormy weather to their quarrels.

The model, a teenage prom queen, was the stepdaughter of a friend. Jeremy sometimes considers the high point of his photographic career was telling a seventeen year old girl with braces to imagine herself as the embodiment of all women. He likes the way she's holding her staff - the symbol of her stateliness and her power wielded with a gentle touch.

El Catrin, 2004

Being an image scavenger, it was only a matter of time before Jeremy strip-mined the Mexican Loteria for material. Roughly translating to "the dandy", This Loteria card has a little poem that accompanies the image. It states, "Don Ferruco in the Alamda, he wanted to toss away his cane and polish his steps."

This image was created in a friend's garage using a leftover backdrop from a school play. The model, Paulo Ruvalcaba, is a Southern California-based artist.

Bassista, 2003

Though most of the work for Freekmagnet involved sets, some costumes, myths and fantasy, this image came as a piece of commissioned work. The bassista was a local musician who came to Jeremy's studio in need of a promotional photo. He was paid $100 for the shoot, which at the time was the most he'd ever been paid for a sitting.

Theseus and the Minotar, 2004

In myths, the heroic quest represents the struggle to define the individual. Theseus found his was through a maze to fight with the Minotaur, a large half human, half bull. He unwound a ball of string so he could find his way out of the maze.

In today's world, much of our landscape is being quickly transformed by the onslaught of large scale development and gentrification of our old neighborhoods. The old scenery that we have come to know is being systematically replaced with bland and unremarkable housing projects and condominiums. In a sense, we are being thrust into a confusing and ever changing environment that has no sense of continuity. These changes are not made by individuals, but by money making entities that have no face that any of us can see. Most of us are only able to sit idly by and watch while the world we used to know is being torn down to make room for a newer and less friendly one.

Theseus' struggle was an effort to negotiate his way through a mass of directionless corridors to discover and confront the heart of his fears and uncertainties. His, or in this case her, struggle today might involve finding her way though the maze of an ever changing landscape in order to confront the machine that governs our way of life.

The model playing the part of Theseus is a committed anarchist and has devoted her life to smashing the patriarchy. She is a poet and writes books about polyamory. This photo was taken in front of Jeremy's warehouse in Emeryville, California.

La Luna, 2004

The moon, and all of her phases, often represent periods of fluctuation and change. With these changes come a certain degree of uncertainty.

The progress of man is tempered by the undeniable forces of nature. Despite the existence of reason, it is sometimes necessary to find solutions through dreams and intuition.

The Brain: An Ode to the Most Under-regarded Part of the Human Body, 2004

In preparing the text for this book, Jeremy felt that this piece need no explanation. A picture says a thousand words.