Nathan Jones' Introduction

[Nathan Jones]

I am extremely pleased to see this site emerge from APUG. I'll take it as my cue to introduce myself. If you prefer, you can skip all this verbage and instead view some my images posted on ALTphotos.com (just run a search there under my name). The following is from my recently drafted "Bio-Statement".

I was born in 1961, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to “activist” parents deeply engaged in the “counterculture” and “radical” thinking of the 1960’s civil rights and antiwar movements. I emerged from the heart of this melee. I am descended entirely from early Mormon pioneers and nineteenth century immigrants from Wales, Scotland, England and Sweden. Though my family has not been Mormon for several generations, we embrace it as an important part of our history. My father is an acclaimed “regional” artist. When I was fourteen, my mother, a photographer in her own right, began teaching me the basics of using a camera, exposing film and working in the darkroom. During my teenage years I was recognized for my poetry, for which I won several important awards. Before finishing high school, I began an eighteen-year career as a professional river guide ---mostly in Grand Canyon, and other rivers of the Colorado Plateau, but ultimately extending from Patagonia to the Arctic. For me, this opened up tremendous photographic opportunities. When I graduated from The Evergreen State College in 1984, I acquired a very used 6X9 Linhof view camera, with three lenses, which I worked into the ground over the next five years. In 1990, weary of a river boatman’s poverty, I started a brine shrimping business on Great Salt Lake. This, and becoming a father in 1993, completely consumed me for a decade. Although this did provide me the opportunity to travel the world “on business”, unfortunately I was too preoccupied to photograph much. The business was fast growing and ultimately successful. I sold it in 1999-2000 and began the process of recovering my peace of mind. In 2001, I invested in another used Linhof ---this time a 4X5. I recently “finished” designing and building a home and studio on Marmalade Hill in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City ---a project spanning five years. I still enjoy running rivers, traveling, spending time at home with Sonia Marie, my partner in love and in life, and with my wonderful daughter, Chloe, and our extended families and friends. I love gardening, cooking, playing my guitar, singing, writing, and practicing photography.

Currently, I scan my in-camera negatives on an Imacon 646 scanner. The work I used to do in the darkroom has been replaced by the tools of Photoshop (used as sparingly as I can). I print on Hahnemuhle 308 gram Photo Rag paper using an Epson UC7600 driven by the Quadtone RIP and applying MIS Associates “Eboni” Ultratone inks. My hope is to be producing, within some months (when my wet darkroom is finished), large palladium and silver chloride contact prints using digital negatives. To this end, I attended a workshop in March taught by Mark Nelson and Dick Arentz.

I am scheduled for my first show in 20 years at the Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah from February 3rd through March 11, 2007. The working titile for the show is: "Scattered Shadows and Collected Light". I have eighteen Carbon Pigment Inkjet Prints hanging (on an ongoing basis) at Em's Restaurant a few blocks from where I live.

I find the photograph to be an unendingly fascinating phenomenon. At its core it contains a perplexing paradox: it is an object that exists within the medium of time, yet its subject is the intangible moment, the fleeting circumstances of existence, revealed by light, bracketed within the interval between the opening and closing of a shutter ---little more than a blink (expressed with a “click”). It is a slice of time developed precisely to slice through time ---potentially, to cut even to eternity. This is genuine irony ---the stuff of spiritual contemplation.

In light of this, my ultimate objective is to achieve prints that sustain a delicate duration: like a harmonious musical chord that lifts us. I strive in my work to facilitate a meaningful, long-term coexistance between object (the print and its subject) and observer. Whether the print hangs in a home, a work place, or a public space, people will proceed with their lives and tasks (and ruminations) within the picture’s field of view. (I expect the picture to generally grow within, and deepen, the surrounding environment.) Perhaps, from time to time, one will turn and suddenly “see” the print and the noise of existence will be wonderfully arrested, and the charade of racing time will be momentarily ruptured ---thereby blurring and even potentially dissolving the distinction between subject, object and observer. My work is done in deliberate defiance to the shear sensationalism with which my culture is increasingly preoccupied. My images, if successful, are antidotes to the divisive, split-second frames of commercial advertisement and the relentless blitz of mass, superficial titillation. Hopefully, as such, they provide some peace (or at least a piece of something increasingly missing).

Having said all that ---better to allow the images to speak for themselves.

Thank you,

Nathan Jones
October 22, 2006

[W.A.Crider]

Welcome Nathan. I look forward to reading more of your posts.

[Nathan Jones]

Thank you. Likewise.

[Nathan Jones]

I should have added this before. For a sampling of my images go to http://www.altphotos.com/Gallery.asp...9&orderby=rate ---Or, that failing, go directly to http://altphotos.com and run a search for Nathan Thomas Jones.

Thank you,

Nathan

[jd callow]

welcome to Hybrid Nathan

[Nathan Jones]

Its my pleasure.

[Ray Heath]

I should have added this before. For a sampling of my images go to http://www.altphotos.com/Gallery.asp...9&orderby=rate ---Or, that failing, go directly to http://altphotos.com and run a search for Nathan Thomas Jones.

Thank you,

Nathan

g'day Nathan

why not post your images on this site then they'd be easy to access

[Nathan Jones]

Greetings Ray,

I do, in fact, have images posted in the Gallery here.

On the other hand, I have nearly 160 posted on ALTphotos. It would take me some time to post all that here.

Hopefully, access is not too troublesome ---you should be able to just tap the link and go.

I do appreciate your suggestion.

Until next time...

[catem]

Thanks for the very interesting intro!

Are you 'Nathan' from apug?....If so I've seen some of your posts there....
I'm new here too, but used the 'grey area' quite a lot before.....

edit: sorry, make that 'gray area'

[BillSchwab]

Greetings Nathan from another Welshman. I realize the name doesn't give it away, but my Mother is a Griffiths. Lots of Jones' in my family!

Welcome,

Bill