Why a Hollywood star published a book of Lake Worth Beach photographs
Local photographer Matt Vought’s collaboration with an old college pal, actor Viggo Mortensen, will be celebrated Saturday at an mtn space launch party.
LONG BEFORE HE was Hollywood royalty, Viggo Mortensen was just a senior college student sharing poetry with a freshman named Matt Vought. Now, the “Lord of the Rings” star is helping shine a spotlight on his old college buddy’s adopted hometown.
What started as casual emails of black-and-white photos from Vought’s daily walks to Bryant Park has culminated in “lake worth,” a photography book released by Perceval Press, a publishing house Mortensen launched in 2002 to showcase the work of emerging artists.
Mortensen also edited and helped curate the book, roughly 25 photographs that celebrate the intimate, abstract beauty hiding in the city’s shadows. There are snippets of poetry, too.
A book launch and photo exhibition will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. this Saturday at mtn space, a gallery at 111 N M St. Copies of “lake worth” will be available for purchase.
And, no, Mortensen is not expected to attend.
“I have invited him to the opening, but he lives in Spain and he’s constantly traveling to research locations for films,’’ said Vought, a painter and photographer who lives in the F Street Artists Lofts off Lucerne Avenue.
Although it’s been a while since he saw his old friend in person, Vought said they have corresponded regularly over the last 10 years in an email thread with another former college friend.
“It’s been a really fruitful rewarding lifetime friendship based on mutual interests in the arts,’’ he said.
The friendship started around 1979 when Vought was auditioning for ‘’Waiting for Godot” at St. Lawrence University, a liberal arts school 20 miles from the Canadian border in upstate New York.
“We had the door cracked open and he had his head poked in,’’ he said, recalling how Mortensen “was just watching the audition. He wasn’t even auditioning. He was just fascinated by it.’’
They became fast friends and, with another student, discovered shared passions for poetry and acting. “It became a great friendship,’’ he said.
The college pals did their best to stay in touch over the years, which became a challenge as Mortensen went on to enjoy a successful acting career. He played the heroic Aragorn in the “Lord of the Rings” films and earned Oscar nominations for roles in “Eastern Promises,” “A History of Violence” and “Green Book.”
On their group email thread, “We share poetry, photography and sometimes paintings as well,’’ said Vought, who until recently worked in the yachting industry.
Their exchange of art has included moody, abstract black-and-white images taken by Vought on daily walks through downtown Lake Worth Beach. Vought, 65, said he got into a habit of taking his Nikon, and sometimes Olympus, with him, “just wandering around taking photos of things that strike my eye.’’
Reflections in street puddles.
Power lines silhouetted like sentinels against the sky.
The curves of palm fronds.
Clouds billowing over the horizon, which he said are the closest South Florida will get to having mountains.
“They’re very sparse, elemental images for the most part and they leave a lot of room to project your own emotion and your own feeling onto them,’’ he said.
“Most of them are so sparse that they don’t really have a lot of indications of recognizable Lake Worth things other than the mood.’’
Mortensen loved what he saw.
“It was his suggestion: ‘Let’s make a book,’’’ Vought recalled.
There was one thing Mortensen initially didn’t like about the book — the first two suggested book titles, “Seeing in the Dark” and then “Tomorrow’s Skin.’’
Vought said he finally found the right title after focusing on the obvious — how the photographs document his daily “wanderings around Lake Worth.’’
Melissa DelPrete, owner of mtn space, said she considers Vought’s photographs visual poems.
“It’s sort of his homage to his relationship to where he lives and what he sees day in and day out,’’ she said. “And it kind of captures the feeling of Lake Worth, probably a little bit of how it can feel quiet. There’s like a solitude in the photography.’’
After Saturday’s opening, a select group of photos will remain on view in the gallery until July 12. The book can be purchased online.
Although Mortensen probably won’t see the exhibit, he has offered poetic praise for “lake worth” and his old friend.
“Matt Vought has been patiently inspecting upper and lower decks at dawn and dusk, looking for the horizon, for ground and sky, sun and moon, quietly taking stock of the framework of masts and guy-wires that might hold him on-course,’’ he wrote on the Perceval Publishing website.
“The delicately captured and edited collection of images and texts in Lake Worth condense a lifetime spent steering what is steerable and allowing the wind and clouds to determine the rest.’’
Mortensen added:
“It has been almost a half-century since I first sighted him running against the wind, risking sail and mast, barely skirting banks and shoals in order to find his place in the world. Although he may have wandered far and wide, sometimes to the dirty side of storms, he has survived to capture and describe his personal search for the leeward islands in his life.’’