ART GRADUATES 2017
JAMIE MCMULLEN
Bio
Jamie McMullen is an artist and double major student living in Alamosa Colorado. Jamie has been
working with photography for the past five years, and has spent the last three years building and
researching pinhole cameras. Coupled with his drive for science and art, Jamie has strived to work to
combine elements of the two, and from this to learn to develop new pinhole cameras that are more
optically clear. Jamie also works to better understand the science behind pinhole photography.
ARTIST STATEMENT
In my photography I wish to explore the physicality of analogue photography, and the overlooked process that is involved with photographic image creation. Often when one thinks of photography we think of the outcome, the finalized print, but overlook the process. This process is an integral part of photography. In developing and constructing my own cameras I wish to bridge the gap between the physicality of the tool used to capture the light, and the end result of the print that is created. I wish to bring light to the often overlooked tool for image creation. The tool used herein is that of a pinhole camera. A historical process created using modern methods to help create prints that can transcend time. The soft edges coupled with the fully in focus image deliver an artistic rendition that seeks to draw the viewer in.
The subject matter is that of both sweeping landscapes offset by the decaying man made environments. Both of these groups of subject seek to capture the natural entropy of the environments in which they reside. The moment becomes frozen in time. Captured before the subject can decay further. The camera is the tool to capture this decay. A tool made by human hands in an attempt to acquire a memory to recall later, and a reality that will only exist but for a fleeting moment. We cannot stop the entropy of the environment, but as photographers we can try and document the reality before it is gone.
There exists a relationship between the landscapes, the decaying architecture, and the camera. The camera is a human made tool used to try and capture a moment of decay on a reactive negative as the film is developed. All aspects of the work encompass this idea of entropy and decay. The years of time it takes the environment to decay, the entropy of the human made world that begins to erode and decay when there is no upkeep present, and the decay of particles during the chemical reactions in the negatives. Each of these represents a Memento Mori, a constant reminder of our own mortality. We capture beauty in our negatives to try and preserve what we can of the world around us that is ever changing.
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