Field Trip to Escalante Canyon Colorado May 2012

      

Left click on image to view larger photograph

SPRING GREEN IN THE SAN JUAN HIGH COUNTRY 2012

 

This aspen grove and view of the San Juan Range is located west of Ridgway, Colorado at an elevation of about 9500 feet. The image ws made on May 2, 2012.

To view a larger image, left click on above.

DOWN ON THE FARM 1979

This image was made somewhere in northern Virginia, NW of Warrenton.

JACK JEFFERS circa 1947

SELF PORTRAIT

This is one of the first images I ever made and printed.

And it was printed out in my father's old wood shed with a red light hanging over a rafter. Plus, I could only work during moonless nights, because there were no shades over the windows and the numerous cracks in the old wooden walls.

Now, that was primitive. But this hands-on experience was my introduction to my fine art photography which followed some years later.

The camera I used was an old Kodak Brownie 120 roll film with three aperture openings: small, medium and large.

The camera was made about the same time that the Titanic went to the bottom of the Atlantic, and the old wooden tripod was the best I had in terms of a tripod. That old box and tripod eventually fell apart.

Someone recently asked me about my bare feet. Well, in those days many young country boys looked forward to spring because that's when we put our shoes aside for the warm season. I attended a small country school during my first seven years, and many of us went to school in bare feet on the hot days. After a while, we weren't bothered by stones and other rough objects.

How times have changed.

jj

JACK JEFFERS: WELCOME TO MY BLOG

Photograph by Pat Jeffers

I've been having fun for the past three years putting this blog together, and I hope all of you have enjoyed the 171 images that have been posted thus far.

One of the things I've enjoyed the most was posting a short essay along with the photograph to support the image. I often refer to these as "The story behind the scene."

Regardless of how many times I view these images, It's as if I were seeing them again for the first time, and that immediately triggers all sorts of interesting details, many of which I pass along to you, the viewers.

This coming Monday, an exhibition of my Appalachian Collection will be open to the public at the Virginia Historical Society Museum in Richmond, VA. You can read a short description about the show on the second image down from this one.

Last month I turned 78, and I am happy to say that I am still activelyheading into the mountains and the nearby desert to document the beauty of the western landscape. You will see many of these new images throughout the blog.

To view a larger image of any of these photographs, left click on the image

Enjoy.

Jack Jeffers
jack@jeffersfineart.com
Montrose, CO

REFRESHMENTS 1977

Rhode Island

This image speaks for itself. And, as I point out so often, it is important to always keep your eyes open for new concepts, and have your camera close by and ready for the unexpected.

I was heading home to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia from an art show in Connecticut when I decided to take an exit off the Interstate and grab a quick bite to eat. Evidently, the sea gulls had the same plan.

Because of the numerous background distractions, I decided to treat this image a little differently from the rest of my collection. I projected the image onto a sheet of 4 x 5 " Kodalith (high contrast) film and painted out everything but the main attraction. There used to be a special goop made for doing just this sort of thing, and I ended up with a negative image. This simple sconcept was ideally suited for this sort of treatment.

It makes for something a little different.

JACK JEFFERS---RECENT NEWS 2012

Photograph Courtesy Va Historical Society

EXHIBITION

END OF AN ERA: The Photography of Jack Jeffers




VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Richmond, VA

Opens February 20, 2012 and runs through August 26

“This exhibition displays large-format black-and-white prints of people and landscapes from the Appalachian region of western Virginia taken by award-winning photographer Jack Jeffers. Before Jeffers moved to Wyoming, the Virginia artist donated 123 monumental images to the Virginia Historical Society. Jeffers stated in 1996, “What you have represents almost thirty years of my life. Much of what I have recorded is already past history and most of the people I photographed are either dead or close to it.”

“The show will consist of two dozen of the photographs you so kindly donated to the Society. Our designer and I decided that we best give your powerful images room to breathe -- and not stack them like the walls of the Louvre in past centuries. We are confident that the 24 images we selected will make a very powerful impact indeed! So too will the labels, because, aside from an introductory panel, we are using your words entirely. We obviously have utilized your website, and we make reference to it in the introductory label so that visitors to the VHS can discover it.” ---Dr. William Rasmussen


Virginia Historical Society
428 N. Boulevard
Richmond, VA
804-358-4901