Photographs by Jim Richards

February 8, 2024 – April 28, 2024

This conception of reclaiming is an activity of discovering lost parts of ourselves. The collection of images seen here considers this process through the display of infrared and black and white images of discarded cars and trucks being reclaimed by nature in the Pacific Northwest. Originally made from earth elements, these machines are slowly giving their constituent parts back to the planet, which is reclaiming them with the assistance of biochemistry, weather and time. I have always been interested in processes involved in things returning to their origins. Given an abundance of time provided during recent events, many of us had an opportunity to reclaim lost aspects of our lives which had fallen away as we were sucked into the rapid movements of our culture and society. Many of us, given this time and having so many distractions removed, had the opportunity to contemplate, reconsider and experience important qualities of our lives, things that allow us to realize who we really are.

Artist’s Statement for Reclaiming

The making of this series of images, originally called Cars & Trucks, began some 30 years ago when I was introduced to a number of old vehicles that had been discarded in a gully on the side of a country road on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. I was immediately fascinated, and eventually realized that they were being reclaimed by nature. As I thought about this it occurred to me that the earth had actually given birth to the materials from which these things were made. So it seemed right that they be returned to their home, and that nature be given an opportunity to reclaim them. I have long been attracted to this dynamic, even before I started to make images and sculpture, though I didn’t completely understand it at the time. The work I did in finding and making these images helped me figure this out and name it.

In 2020 new resonance was given to this idea of reclamation as many of us sequestered indoors during the beginning of a pandemic. For those of us in this situation, we were given time we hadn’t had in a long while, if ever, and were confronted with an opportunity to reclaim parts of our natures that had been lost in our fast-moving culture. That rat race is ramping up again, and we are faced with the prospect of losing what was gained in those quieter times. While preparing for this show I realized that this work holds a new message which encourages us to be active in trying to hold on to these reclaimed parts of ourselves: stopping, finding a quiet place, observing, sitting and thinking, making things, taking time with others, putting limits on technology: all things we can do for ourselves. I hope we can hold onto these reclaimed parts of our true natures.

On the show’s presentation:

Another aspect of one of the methods I’ve chosen to show this work is a concept I have been considering which began as a series I called, “Hangings”, which I then realized are actually “Suspensions”. I define “suspension” as a state in which something is free of constraint. As a deeply independent person, I move away from limitations and boundaries. In my image-making work, I do not place my images behind glass. I don’t like seeing myself reflected in framing glass while trying to see what is behind it. So I don’t ask you to do it. Some of these images are suspended, free of all but the most basic attachments required to hang them for display, and presented purely for viewing and experiencing. The liquid emulsion prints are suspended on top of a bed of earth. It seemed the right material to use as a matte. For protection, I use doors instead of glass, which can be opened for viewing or closed. When open, the doors welcome the viewer as if with open arms. The drawer frames include glass, but have drawers so the viewer can pull them open and see the image, and even reach in and pick it up for closer examination. It’s important to me to make things that are accessible.

I hope you enjoy your experience with this work and can find ways to reclaim and hold on to important aspects of your life.

Jim Richards

February 2024

jrichards12@gmail.com

Website: www.makerjim.com

IG: @makerjim (daily image and word postings)

IG: @makerjimshows (what I show in galleries)

Biography

Jim Richards is an American photographer, sculptor and papermaker.

Early life and Education

Jim was born on August 22, 1961, somewhere in Connecticut, the oldest of four children. He attended Fordham University at the Rose Hill Campus in the Bronx, studying business economics. He became interested in filmmaking after taking Professor Henry Herx’s Film Comedy Class. Becoming an avid film-watcher and super-8 filmmaker, he went on to a business job for four years, where he developed analytical and problem-solving skills. During this time, he started painting with acrylics and making clay sculpture, taking Barney Hodes’ Figurative Sculpture Class in the basement of the Arts Students League. In 1988, he left the business world to work in film, briefly as a production assistant, then as a grip, electrician and gaffer. In 1989 he attended the Intensive 16mm Filmmaking Workshop at NYU. In 2000 he studied with acclaimed Cinematographer, Billy Williams at The Maine Photographic Workshops. He has worked as a gaffer and film lighting technician for the last 33 years. Further classes at The Penland School of Crafts enhanced his abilities as a sculptor and image-maker using alternative photographic techniques. Two classes in 3D Sculptural Papermaking with Melissa Jay Craig at The Women’s Studio Workshop in 2014-15 rounded out the current, though ever-expanding toolkit.

Jim continues a life-long search for knowledge about almost anything, especially theoretical physics, mathematics and science, especially field biology, hoping to become a citizen scientist in the tree canopy in Peru this July with the amazing Field Biologist, Meg Lowman, author of “The Arbornaut”.

Career

Beginning his work in the film business in 1988 at Broadcast Arts, working in film animation, Jim worked his way up through the ranks, starting as a production assistant, then as a grip, then electrician and gaffer. Throughout this time, he continued to make things: experimental animated Super-8 films in the early 90’s, and then photography and sculpture. He opened his studio in 1995 in Union City, NJ, in a 150-year-old former silk factory, where he continues to make things today. There he started working with liquid emulsion and printing on wood, utensils for eating and dishware, printing in a homemade 4’x4’x8’ black box darkroom (with no plumbing or air circulation). After attending classes at Penland School of Crafts in the early 2000’s, he expanded his printing media to include copper, glass, razor blades and vegetables, made easier now, having built a darkroom in a larger space with running water in the same building.

In 2016, he surveyed what had been made to date. It was a lot, and so began the process of determining how to present to the public what had become many bodies of work. He decided that liquid emulsion prints would be shown in wooden frames with doors instead of protected by glass, and the first of the drawer frames were conceived and built, so that the work could be displayed in a way that was accessible to viewers.

In 2018, Jim started showing his work, first at Big Alice Brewing in LIC, where he participated in several group shows, made possible by curator Kelly Coffey, and then had his first solo exhibition there in 2021 . His first gallery showing was in the Small Works Show at 440 Gallery in Brooklyn, where he has shown work several times. His most recent solo show was at Gala Art Center in College Point, Queens in March of 2023 called Samples of Several Bodies II, consisting of 91 pieces from 8 bodies of work. Jim now shows his work regularly at Art Fluent in Boston and Verum Ultimum in Portland, OR. He was honored to have been selected for a Curator’s Choice Feature of his Straw Camera Portraits at Art Fluent in September of last year. This feature can still be seen on the Art Fluent website (www.art-fluent.com under Artists/Jim Richards.)