John Anderson

Exhibitions

1976: Silver Image Gallery, Washington
1977: Tacoma Art Museum, Washington
1981: Bennington College Art Gallery, Vermont
1999: Blue Heron Art Gallery, Washington
2003: Gallery 070, Washington
2003: Husted Gallery, Washington
Works in the collection of Paul Brainerd


Curriculum Vitae

1976: Studied with master photographers Arthur Bacon and Bob Kolbrener.

1977 -1979: Studied and taught with Ansel Adams at the Ansel Adams Workshops in Yosemite, California.

1977- 1981: Taught for the Friends of Photography Workshops in Utah - worked with Phil Hyde, Arthur Bacon, Bob Kolbrener, Al Weber.

1981: Graduated Bennington College, Vermont with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

1982-1993: Wrote, produced and directed several films including, Frail Thoughts, which played at the Cannes Film Festival, and, Avalon, a feature film that played at the Sundance Film Festival and enjoyed a limited commercial release.

1992: Graduate work in Mythology and Psychology at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, CA. Studied with Jonathan Young, curator of the Joseph Campbell and James Hillman Archives.

2000: Published essay on language and mythology in the journal Mythosphere.

Present: Following a lifelong engagement with wilderness, John has spent the last several years photographing extensively in the mountains, forests and coast of the Pacific Northwest.

Artist's Statement

The wilderness that remains in the North Cascades and on the Olympic Peninsula is a doorway to another world. Its lush and overwhelming complexity, its harsh beauty, its alien remoteness immerse the visitor in an experience that awakens the chthonic soul. When I photograph in this mythic landscape, I fall into a kind of trance induced by the spirit of the place and the unique quality of light which each moment creates. I look until I am taken by a configuration or gesture of the land that elicits an emotional response. That's the moment when I have to photograph and the challenge ensues to allow the image to pass through the equipment and process and emerge on the other side transformed yet hopefully retaining its original force. If I succeed, something of that other world resonates within the abstracted black and white image.

NOTES
Photographs are gelatin silver prints, handmade, selenium toned
Image sizes: 20"x24" and 16"x20"


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