Lewis Jackson
Greeley, Colorado
Lewis Jackson's art works in photography and digital imaging are original works, completed over fifty+ years, worldwide
Message
Lewis Jackson is a largely self-taught photographer, presently living in Colorado. His primary focus has been landscapes and seascapes, but in more recent times, he has been branching out to images of still-life, wildlife, people in daily life, unique architecture, and cityscapes. He has traveled extensively, including Asia, Africa, the Mid-east, Australia, North America, Central America, and Europe. His travel photography can be described as enhanced representational, attempting to capture the beauty of life in different parts of the world as he sees it.
His family consists of his wife, Ginny; a daughter, Alyson, and her husband, Keith, and two grandchildren, Lila Paige and Imogen Tess. He also has family by marriage, a step-son named, Chris, and his wife, Tarah; and a step-daughter named Jamie, and Jamie's family of husband, Will, and two children, Wilder and Eve. These individuals often inspire pictures, some of which are included in the collections offered here.
His work is also influenced by his spiritual path, Eckankar, the Path of Spiritual Freedom. He strives to realize art that reflects the wonder and beauty he sees in all of life.
Statement
In the published book entitled Parallel Perspectives, Holly Gordon and Ward Hooper describe an emerging medium that they call Photo-Liminalism. Requiring a re-evaluation of the relationship between brush and lens, photos taken by the artist are digitally re-mastered using computer-based applications, including but not limited to software programs that simulate the painting mediums of oils, watercolor, pastel, and other brush-based forms of expression. As described in Parallel Perspectives, "Each image is individually and organically created from an original photographic file and . . . is not a replication of any work that preceded it" (p.156).
Images are initially composed by camera, then recomposed with some enhancements in Lightroom and Photoshop. Many images are then re-mastered into expressions that I believe integrate what I photographed with how I perceive and feel about what I saw, via a wide range of software applications and plug-ins, including Painter. Images are then printed multiple times using a relatively large format digital printer on high quality photo and matte papers, until a final product is realized that achieves the expression that I wish for as the artist. It is akin to printmaking as an art form, but now using the technology of today, computers and advanced software applications designed for artists. A single work typically requires several weeks of imaging and re-imaging before an image is realized that matches what I wish to express. Sometimes, a work will have several representations sitting on a shelf across days and weeks, and these will be repeatedly compared and contrasted, until one representation is chosen as the "final."
In some ways, my work is informed by the painting profession more than by the photography profession; for example, questions of (say) value are more likely to drive creativity than questions of (say) contrast. Yet, I have to apply the tools of both mediums to achieve the expression I am looking for in an image.