Jay Mark Johnson
I am very happy to be hosting the second of a four lecture series, 4 Evenings with Fine Art Photographers, this Thursday, April 29th, with the amazing image-maker, Jay Mark Johnson. The lecture will take place at A & I in Hollywood, and begins at 7pm. For more details on the event, go here. Hope to see you there!
Jay produces work that is on the forefront of new technology and photographic images that challenge the norms of perception. Employing a process that is distinct from conventional photography, he creates works that merge the recording of space and time into a single, linear “spacetime” continuum. The resulting photographs are akin to both seismographs and electrocardiograms in that, as timelines, they begin on the left and end on the right. The horizontal length of the image conveys an uninterrupted and fluid measurement of a brief span of time, varying in duration from 10 seconds up to 45 minutes.
Johnson writes, “Human knowledge expands and matures through advances in the arts and the sciences in one of at least two general manners. Either they push the outer envelope into newer territory or they construct new symbolic scaffoldings which span across and link together previously disparate disciplines. In the empirical sciences, discernible advances are made when an established instrument or practice develops greater refinement or greater range. Art contributes by challenging perceptions, shifting perspectives or otherwise strengthening or broadening established understandings.”
“The artist views the works in these series as spacetime photography. He equates his visual experimentation to stepping “through the looking glass” with Alice. In this parallel world of shifted perceptions, the ground rules are changed. Horizontal space is obliterated, shadows are crisscrossed, directional movement is confounded. Individuals appear isolated from the spaces they inhabit, and the relative speed of an object causes its expansion or contraction. Though the images are true photographs, they challenge the viewer’s effort to decode them.”
Posts on Lenscratch may not be reproduced without the permission of the Lenscratch staff and the photographer.
Recommended
-
B.A. Van Sise: On the National LanguageDecember 9th, 2024
-
The New Renaissance of Photo BooksDecember 7th, 2024
-
Smith Galtney in Conversation with Douglas BreaultDecember 3rd, 2024
-
Jordan Eagles in Conversation with Douglas BreaultDecember 2nd, 2024
-
The Lenscratch DINNER Exhibition, Part 2November 28th, 2024