On display in Lightspace Gallery from August 7th, 2024 to September 1st, 2024.
Exhibition Statement:
It is an honor to have my western landscape images shown in the most beautiful city in the American West! San Francisco – with its rich history beginning as a small pueblo and expanding over time into a modern city filled with great restaurants, gorgeous architecture, distinctive neighborhoods and, of course, an amazing and diverse art culture – is an ideal city to show my work. My photography depicts scenes not found in the city proper, but encompasses restrained tableaux that embody the expansive history of the West, including San Francisco’s.
For my fine art landscape photography, I apply the organizing principles and inspiration: simple shapes, graphic lines, eliminate clutter. Light when necessary. Repeat.
For me, trusting my vision is an extremely important aspect of what I do. I learned long ago not to second guess things like composition or light or content. Photography is, as is many art forms, a reaction to experience, spirit, instinct and that which immediately resonates. I do have visual triggers – a black asphalt road cutting for miles through harvested wheat, an empty, snowy field with a stream curving to a single tree, a small barn with its roof barely visible above a barren hillside. My landscapes do not look the way they do strictly because of the locations; I gravitate to the stark and isolated vistas because they speak to me, are what I feel.
I thank the IAMA for this opportunity to show my work in their unique space.
Artist Biography:
Over the years, Jeff Corwin has taken photos hanging out of a helicopter over the Thames River, in the jungles of Borneo, on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Italian aircraft carrier Garibaldi while photographing arrier Jet missions over the Tyrrhenian Sea for Rolls-Royce. He has done photo shoots in 41 countries/5 continents, including in Moscow with two retired KGB agents with AK-47’s accompanying him and Belfast, Northern Ireland in the mid-80’s. Assignments included portraits of famous faces, including Bill Gates, Cesar Chavez, Ray Bradbury, LA Police Chief Daryl Gates, Michael Graves and Vanna White, and photos for corporate clients like Microsoft, Dell, Apple, Boeing, Lockheed, AT&T and Time/Life. His hottest photo shoot: Abu Dhabi at 114 °F. The coldest: Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada at -40 °F.
After 40+ years as a commercial photographer, Corwin has turned his eye to fine art photography, primarily landscape vistas. He brought the same vision forward, creating photographs grounded in design. Also, his early formal studies with Arnold Newman, environmental portrait master in Rockport, Maine, provided him with solid technical bedrock that still serves him. For Corwin, a recognition of what personally resonates – a reaction to experience, spirit and instinct, as well as simplicity, graphic forms and strong configurations that repeat are what “do it” for Him.
The seeds were sown about 15 years ago during an assignment in the sparse eastern part of Washington State. He began to recognize the visual triggers. A black asphalt road cutting for miles through harvested wheat. An empty, snowy field with a stream curving to a single tree. A small barn, the roof barely visible above a barren hillside. Yet his landscapes do not look the way they do strictly because of the locations. Corwin gravitates to the stark and isolated vistas because they speak to him. It is what he sees because it is what he feels. Trusting his vision is extremely important to Corwin. His experience has taught him not to second guess elements like composition or content. That does not mean he is opposed to enhancing what he sees. After many years of shooting landscapes without any tools other than a camera, Corwin began to do what he did for his commercial work – artificially light subjects by bringing powerful strobes into the landscapes. This augmentation stayed true to the essence of the scene while heightening the surface tension. After decades of photographing in B/W, he began introducing color into his photography and landed on a technique that is more painterly and interpretive, with colors muted and shifted in temperature. Corwin’s exhibitions (recent and upcoming) include International Art Museum of America, San Francisco, CA; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK; Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Glasgow, Scotland; Jean B. King Gallery, College of Southern Idaho, Twin Falls, ID; Step Up Gallery / Mesa Public Library, Los Alamos, NM; WaterWorks Museum, Miles City, MI; Holter Museum of Art, Helena, MT; Northwest Montana History Museum, Kalispell, MT; #Art on Screen/Big Screen Plaza, New York, NY; Jyväskylä Art Museum, Jyväskylä, Finland; Bader & Simon Museum, Cincinnati, OH; Casino Luxembourg, LU; Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM; West Charleston Library Gallery, Las Vegas, NV; Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA; Cedarburg Art Museum, Cedarburg, WI; High Desert Museum, Bend, OR; Summerlin Library Gallery, Las Vegas, NV; Colorida Galeria del Arte, Lisbon, Portugal; SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM; Masur Museum, Monroe, LA; Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA; Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA; Echo Arts, Bozeman, MT; NYU Tandon School of Engineering / Integrated Design and Media: Art in the Wild; DragonFLY Creative Space, Chicago, IL; Contemporary Art Center of Peoria, IL; Still Point Arts Gallery, Brunswick, ME; Stapleton Gallery, Billings, MT; The Art Spirit Gallery, Coeur d’Alene, ID; and the University of Texas at Tyler.
Two recent artist books were published about his photography: “Guns+America,” Atelier VGI, New York, NY, 2023 and “Jeff Corwin,” Cahier d’images, Luxembourg, LU, The Jyväskylä Art Museum, Jyväskylä, Finland recently purchased a Corwin photo for their permanent collection. Corwin is an award recipient of Art Folio 2022 Abstract Photography – Silver; Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA) 2022 Honorable Mention; and Black and White Prize Winner: Honorable Mention, New York Center for Photographic Art. Interviews include KSFR Santa Fe Public Radio/Cline’s Corner; UMFM Radio/Art World Innovators, Manitoba, Canada; and WCBU Peoria Public Radio/Out and About.
Recent and upcoming global press coverage includes, among others, Hyperallergic; Art Reveal Magazine, United Kingdom; Santa Fe New Mexican/Pasatiempo; Modern Renaissance; Magazine 43, Berlin, Hong Kong, Manila; ART UP MI, Milan, Italy; Into The Void, Vancouver; LandEscape Art Review, UK; New Mexico Bar Bulletin, cover; Sage Literary and Arts Magazine, Yale University; Blue Mesa Review; Camas Magazine; The Fourth River; Gemini Magazine; Arboreal Literary and Arts Magazine; Diagram; Imitation Fruit Literary Journal; Superpresent Magazine; Third Street Review; Dream Noir; The Fictional Café; Rip Rap 45; ArLiJo; Photo.com; Share Journal; Counterclock; MVIBE Magazine, New York; The Museum of Americana; Art Folio Annual 2022; 3 Elements Review; Whitefish Review; Another Chicago Magazine; Agave; Woven Tale Press; Barzakh Magazine; Apricity; Artdose Magazine; All About Photo; 805 Lit + Art; F-Stop Magazine; The Working Artist; Apero Catalogue; Interalia, UK; and FOTO Cult, Rome. Gallery representation: Stapleton Gallery, Billings, Montana; Echo Arts, Bozeman, Montana; and Stewart Gallery, Boise, Idaho.