September 12, 2009 through October 06, 2009
Jake Shivery
Jake Shivery is a portraitist based in St Johns, Oregon. He has been involved in the photo industry for nearly twenty years, working in many capacities in many places. In 2001, he co-founded Blue Moon Camera and Machine, where he is now the proprietor. In the past few years, exhibitions of Jake’s large format work have taken place in several notable galleries: Newspace Center for Photography, the Camerawork Gallery, and now Lightbox. Examples of his work may be found in the Regional Arts and Culture Council’s “Visual Chronicle of Portland” and the Portland Art Museum’s permanent collection of photographs. He lives in St Johns with his dog, Daisy.
“Contact Portraits” refers to the technique of printing directly from the negative and producing a print of the same size, in this case, eight inches by ten inches. A long established photographic practice, contact printing does not rely on enlarging, and best maintains the integrity of the original negative. The resulting work is heavily influenced by this process–oriented approach: the pieces are still, formative and meditative. These posed portraits represent modern subjects interacting with traditional, craft-based technology, creating a unique set of circumstances that lean toward being simultaneously formal and intimate.
All images are contact printed onto selenium-toned fibre paper for exceptional archivability.
Jake would like to thank the people that help make this project continue, especially Lightbox Gallery for hosting, Ms. Emily Ford, for her constant support, and Ms. Nancy Guidry, for printing all the hard ones.
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