Simen Johan Lecture

Simen Johan creates photographs using both digital and traditional techniques. Originally, creating digital negatives and printing in a black and white dark room.  With better digital printing he has been able change the direction in which he works, now using color.  Each of his images are created using hundreds of photographs and as he explained, sometimes taking him years to complete.  The themes that are present in his work are that of fantasy and creating "alternate realities for ourselves."  The work that he presented at the lecture included both his work with children and with animals, and not that it was obvious by his cold and impersonal way of speaking to an audience- he stated that he prefers working with animals over children. 

I really enjoy his photographs, and I feel like they speak volumes without explanation, but I think he relies too heavily on the visual aspects.  Johan spoke as if it was a true effort to explain his art.  He seems much more focused on the mechanical aspects of the work, and less on concept and ideas.  Not to mention I found it totally unprofessional the way he hurried along questions and did not really want to answer most of them.  I respect his work because I am working in a very similar way, and what he creates is truly amazing and complex.  I could completely relate to his way of working, trying to do as much work in the camera to avoid fabrication in photoshop, and he hit it dead on when he said the more you have to manipulate something the less successful it usually becomes.  I have found the same things happen in my work, usually the less forced pieces work better.  Although, listening to his lecture, I think he has a long way to go when it comes to public speaking and appealing to his audience.

Jonathon Wells

Bio

• Jonathon wells is both a photographer and geologist.

• Education
  
  Coursework in art, University of Minnesota, St Paul / Minneapolis, MN (2008)
  Artist Professional Toolbox, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts / Massachusetts, Boston, MA (2006).
  Coursework in visual arts, Mass College of Art and School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2003–2005)
  Certificate General Studies in Photography, International Center of Photography, New York, NY (2002).
  Master of Arts Geology, Boston University, Boston, MA (1995).
  Bachelor of Science Earth Science, Cum Laude, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA (1988).

• 2002 – present: Ongoing work on photography / geologic projects and freelance environmental consulting

About the Work

• "I am continuing to build my existing series while initiating new series at sites around the world where I identify a thought-provoking intersection of land use and underlying geology. I am committed to fostering dialog about human interaction with the earth through my work."- Jonathon Wells
• His statement: 

"My artwork combines views of the land surface and the underlying geologic layers into single digital images. I am trained as both a fine art photographer and as a geologist, which has enabled me to create photomontages with both surface and subsurface views. This unusual perspective offers a different point from which to consider landscape and contemplate a sense of place. I am grappling with the elemental questions: What is the relationship between humans and earth? What kind of relationship exists between our surface world and the earth layers below?

The creation of these photomontages is both an artistic and investigatory process. As a fine art photographer, I find my eye and imagination actively engaged in a specific urban or rural site or space—a New York City block, a gasoline station, a water well site on a wooded hillside. As a geologist, I am intrigued by the underlying geologic framework of that site, by the path of the groundwater flow, by the evidence of the modern world—the utilities, subways, even the pollution—that are marked into the earth.

My artistic process takes months of study and investigation. First, I search for both landscapes and geologic frameworks that intrigue me. I might spend days documenting a city block. To visualize the substrata, I will turn to old and new geologic surveys and maps, to utility maps and geologic field guides. I’ll pull off roadways to photograph rock exposures, follow road workers and underground cable repairs with my camera, waiting for an exposed opening—a “window”—that will allow me to capture a glimpse of what lies below us. Finally, I create the photomontage digitally, combining a documented landscape with the substrata below. In my exploration of both surface and subsurface views of the earth, I hope to offer images that allow viewers an intriguing way to contemplate both landscape and a sense of place. "

Jonathon Wells

South Shore Art Center

Interview

Presence

"The reader should be carried forward, not merely or chiefly by the mechanical impulse of curiosity, not by a restless desire to arrive at the final solution, but by the pleasurable activity of the journey itself." -Coleridge, poet

Art as Experience, John Dewey. 1934

The Berkley Publishing Group, Penguin USA.

Although somewhat dated in that what Dewey novelly stated long ago at the time of publication, we now accept as obvious. This gives insight to gain an understanding of art both as a producer and as a spectator. The central theme is that life is an experience, and that the goal of art is to recapture that experience. He captures a number of concepts established earlier by Leo Tolstoy in his "What is Art?" but goes deeper into them, expounding on their more practical uses.

This relates to my work because a huge part of my photography relies heavily on the viewer to feel a presence, or other life in the work. Im working partly to capture an experience that could eventually be real, while creating a presence of life at the same time to create more of a personal feeling.

Yeondoo Jung

Bio

• Yeondoo Jung was born in 1969 in Jinju, Korea.  He currently lives and works in Seoul, Korea.
• Education: 1997 University of London, Goldsmiths College, MFA 1995 London Institute, Central Saint Martin College of Art, Diploma in Sculpture 1994 Seoul National University, College of Fine Arts, BFA- sculpture
• 2007 Artist of the Year, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul

About his work

• "Winner of the 2007 Artist of the Year Award by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korean artist Yeondoo Jung is well respected for his art form. In his Locations series, he approaches his photography in a unique way opting to utilise traditional prop making techniques and scenery construction to create his ideal custom landscapes. A bit of a purist, his landscapes combine natural and artificial elements without any digital manipulation giving his images an awesome nostalgic feel. Amazing work."
  
• "In his Location series, Korean artist Yeondoo Jung utilises traditional prop making techniques and scenery construction to create his ideal custom landscapes."
  
• "Photographs of Yeondoo Jung evoke warmth, presenting positive energy to viewers through simple pleasure and splendor imbued within. Rather than presenting images by putting different subjects together, Jung attempts to represent the relationships brought up amongst the subjects, and sentiments or dreams that are held by them, which becomes the quintessence of his “constructed photography.”
  Therefore, Jung’s photos can be distinguished from those of Jeff Wall that revive the pictorial structure into the context of modern life or those of Pierre & Gilles that create spectacular fantasy with impersonation of Cleopatra or naval forces. Especially, the works of the latter hold their signature character that lives in the artificial paradise, so called “Pierre & Gilles Land,” which emanates unique radiance."

Tina Kim Gallery

Yeondoo Jung Website

Interview

Commodity

 "It's addiction to portable technology, which you take with you practically to bed, the cinema, to the theatre, to a dinner party. The symptoms are, like with any other addiction, that people spend more time using their technology than spending it in socialising or in family time."- Professor Nada Kakabadse, Northhampton Business School

Tech We Can't Live Without

PC Magazine

Jennifer L. DeLeo

This article outlines some of the gadgets that people cannot seem to live without.  As technological advances allow us to come up with these products, the general population gets more and more addicted to using them.  It changes our lives, and everything in it- from how we communicate to the things we do in our spare time, or things we do just to get through the day.  Ranging from TiVo, Gutiar Hero and other video games, cell phones and PDAs, as well as the internet and portable music devices.  

This relates to my work because I am incorporating objects into my images.  A route that I am trying to take with these objects is to abandon these technological gadgets that generally would not be discarded, I guess to create more of a forcefully abandoned feel into my imagery.

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison

Bio

• 
  RPH Born in 1968 Fort Leonard Wood, MO 1964
  SPH Borin in Tulsa, OK 1964
  
  They currently reside in Massachusetts
  
  


• RPH 1994 University of New Mexico, M. F. A.
  1990 kansas City Art Institute, B.F.A.
  SPH 1991-94 Graduate Studies, University of New Mexico
  1986 William Woods College, B.F.A.
  


• (In 2001, after many years of an evolving collaboration, the ParkeHarrisons began to
  exhibit their work recognizing both Robert and Shana as creators.)
  

Their Work

• "Much has been written about Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison, the husband and wife team whose photographic tableaus took the art world by storm more than six years ago. Creating a genre unique within the photo world, the ParkeHarrisons construct fantasies in the guise of environmental performances for their Everyman – a man dressed in a black suit and starched white shirt – who interacts with the earths landscape. Tapping into their surreal imagination, the artists combine elaborate sets (which can take months to construct) and an impeccable sense of wit and irony, to address issues about the earth and mankind's responsibility to heal the damage he has done to its landscape." -Edelman Gallery

Jack Shainman Gallery

Artist Website

Interview

Deterioration

"The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard."
— Gaylord Nelson
former governor of Wisconsin, co-founder of Earth Day

Is the environment a national security issue?
Levy, MA
International Security. Vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 35-62. 1995.

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife.

This essay examines the idea that global environmental degradation is a security threat to the United States. It focuses on three distinct forms of connections between the environment and security, which is termed the existential, the physical, and the political. This article reviews each link and evaluates each on its own terms. All of these views pertain to links from processes of environmental degradation to deterioration in security positions. Connections that run in the opposite direction (from use of force to deterioration in environmental quality) are not discussed.

I think its interesting to think of environmental deterioration as a security threat to the US, or any country, because it gives my current project that much more of a statement- it kind of adds this precursor of a story to my images where nature is taking back over.  It makes me think about specifically what occurred in these places that I am creating, how they got to their absent state in the first place.