"Inside Lives" Project by John Ritchie

The past year has been extremely challenging as we’ve faced the Coronovirus and the social distancing imposed by it. As we move into winter, social distancing will turn into isolation when there’s little daylight and the weather turns bad, forcing people to retreat into their homes and wait for better times. I’m taking advantage of these long dark hours to work on a new project that I’m calling “Inside Lives.”

With “Inside Lives” I make photographs of people in the privacy of their homes, illustrating aspects of their lives not seen by others. The photos are all taken at night from outside the house, peering through windows into the home. I hope to capture the uniqueness of people in their private lives, especially as they cope with isolation, and do it in a way that both adheres to and features social distancing. The photographs should be true to their subjects, somewhat voyeuristic, show unusual (even weird) activity, and may be moody, disturbing, or funny.

I’m using volunteer models and have done several shoots already. Recruiting people to work on it with me has been a challenge due to the Coronavirus-imposed lack of social engagement. Photo shoots are fun for all, take a look at what I’ve done and please consider volunteering!

I plan to do as much work on this as I can during winter and spring while darkness is readily available then start showing the work next year. Of course this schedule depends on how rampant the Coronavirus becomes this winter and how much contact it allows. I’m keeping as safe as I can during the shoots but if we need to quarantine at home it’ll make it hard to do anything.

"Friends' Houses (I cannot visit)" and Isolation by John Ritchie

I can’t begin to express the shock and upheaval we all feel at the onset of the Coronavirus and subsequent societal shutdown. Like every other artist on the face of the planet, this is impacting the work I’m doing and how I do it. As someone interested in photographing the life of people, my photographs will of course be affected by the changes in those people and our society, and we’re already seeing big changes. My methods will need to adapt to new constraints such as social distancing and the difficulty of socializing with the people I’d like to photograph. New topics will present themselves, too, as the crisis spawns artistic creativity around the world.

One example of that is the Willamette Valley PhotoArts Guild’s “Socially Distanced Photo Excursions” project, which challenges PAG members to find ways to create photographs under the constraints of social distancing, bans on travel, and shelter in place measures. This project has resulted in hundreds of photographs and gained local press attention.

Friends’ Houses (I cannot visit)” is a photo collection I created as part of the PAG’s Excursions project. In this collection I portray the sense of loss and isolation felt when I go by friends’ houses but cannot visit them.

Isolation In the Age of Pandemic

Although art galleries are closed world-wide, many of them are hosting limited viewing or online exhibits, and Coronavirus-inspired themes such as “Isolation” and “Social Distancing” are hot topics right now. Such is the case with LightBox Photographic’s “Isolation In the Age of Pandemic” exhibit. This is a “jury of peers” exhibit, where people submitting photos vote on which pictures are included in the show. My photograph was one of 20 images selected for the physical exhibit.

“Isolation” opened May 15 and can be viewed online. Access to the physical show in the gallery, located at 1045 Marine Drive in Astoria, will depend on the evolving status of the state’s social-distancing rules. The gallery hopes to be able to hold a reception in June or July. The exhibit runs through July 11.

Solitary Outlook

Work in Two Juried Shows - Portland and Astoria by John Ritchie

I’ll have two of my favorite photographs in two different exhibits during March.

Black Box Gallery in Portland

One of my favorite whimsical photographs will be on display in the Black Box Gallery for their “Focus: Shadow and Light” exhibit.

Black Box Gallery is located at 811 East Burnside St. #212 Portland, Oregon. The exhibit runs from March 1st to March 20th with an artist reception from 6-9 PM on Friday March 6th.

Zebra In Hiding

LightBox Gallery in Astoria

I’ll have another favorite on display in the “A Jury Of Your Peers” exhibit at Lightbox Gallery. The theme for this exhibit was interesting - artists submitted work, then participated in the jury process to select which images were included in the show. It was educational and really difficult, giving me new respect for jurors faced with selecting works from large pools of excellent images.

LightBox Photographic Gallery is located at 1045 Marine Drive, Astoria, Oregon. The exhibit will be on display from March 14th through April 7th with an artist reception from 5-8pm on Saturday, March 14th.

“The Evolution of Surfing” was an example of the kind of created luck that makes street photography so rewarding. I was people watching on the beach when this man came down to surf. Each of the people in this photo gradually moved into place and I was ready with my camera when the composition momentarily came together. I still get a rush just looking at this and thinking about it!

The Evolution of Surfing

A New Year, A New Project by John Ritchie

Viewers of this site currently see two bodies of work: Night’s Quiet Light and Their World, Our World. The first is all about night, and dark, and quiet, while the second is about people, primarily street photography. I’ve decided to marry the two in a new project that I’m calling “Night Life” until the project shapes itself into a better title. Its goal is to show lively night and people as they are at night. A prime example is “Street Party,” a photo I took a few years ago.

Street Party

Street Party

Toward that end, I’ve been going out at night, shooting handheld, trying to capture the type of energy and life I see out there. I’m experimenting technically, artistically and thematically. Here are several photos showing what I’ve been coming up with. Some of these might better be characterized as “studies” rather than as finished art for the gallery walls, but I’m pretty happy with what I’m seeing so far.

Exhibit Extravaganza: 2019 Schedule by John Ritchie

Recently I have so many exhibit engagements that I can hardly keep track of them myself, so I know nobody else can either. Here’s a summary of all four of them.


Dreaming In Color

I blogged about this a few days ago but here are the summary details again.

  • Location: LightBox Photographic, 1045 Marine Drive, Astoria Oregon

  • Dates: November 9th through December 10th 2019

  • Reception: 5-8 PM, Saturday November 9th. I plan to be there, I hope to see you!


About Light

I’ve been invited to participate in About Light at The Arts Center in Corvallis based upon my work in the recent “The Critical Eye” exhibit. The curator asked me to put in a piece showing the strange light of night. This is right up my alley.

Updated: The local paper included my photo in their article about the exhibit.


Curious, The Cat

Details:

  • Location: The Arts Center, 700 SW Madison, Corvallis Oregon

  • Dates: November 12th through December 28th, 2019

  • Reception: Thursday November 21st, 5:30 - 7:30 PM during the Corvallis Art Walk.


The Road Less Traveled

This is the Willamette Valley PhotoArts Guild’s biennial member’s exhibit at the Giustina Gallery in the LaSells Stewart Center on the OSU campus. The theme for the exhibit is based on Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken”, offering members a chance to show different, new work. I will have four photographs in the show but haven’t yet decided on all of them. I think this one is far enough off the beaten path to make the cut though. Besides the geometrical content and beautiful cat, this piece will be matted and framed diagonally, something I rarely see.

Yes, I know, it’s Yet Another Cat Photo. But the diamond shape does different and strange things to the composition, hopefully enough to lift it out of the Cat Photo Mob.

Diamond Kitty

Details:

  • Location: The LaSells Stewart Center, 875 SW 26th St., Corvallis Oregon

  • Dates: December 10th, 2019 through January 27th, 2020

  • Reception: Thursday, December 12th, 6:30 - 8:30 PM


The 2019 LightBox Members Exhibit

I’ve blogged about the benefits of Member’s shows before. I get to hang two pieces in this show but I haven’t yet decided what I want to showcase. It won’t be cats.

Details:

  • Location: LightBox Photographic, 1045 Marine Drive, Astoria Oregon

  • Dates: December 14th, 2019 through January 31st, 2020

  • Reception: Saturday, December 14th from 5:00 to 8:00 PM

Dreaming In Color at LightBox Photographic by John Ritchie

I’ve long been a supporter of LightBox Photographic in Astoria and have been in several Member’s Shows, but for the first time I’ve actually been juried into a show there! And not one, but two pieces! The juror is Jody Miller, whose beautiful work you can see here: www.jodymillerphoto.com.

Jody says this about the show (full description here): “Color is a very personal issue for most of us photographers. It’s also a completely individual experience, since not one of us sees color exactly the same way as anyone else. Our perception of color informs our choices as photographers and creates our emotional language. “Dreaming in Color” is about much more than our dreams. It is an invitation to explore your own uses of color in your photography and tell us how it influences your decisions in image making. I look forward to seeing what you have to say, (in color).”

“Yard Car” is very colorful as one would hope. I love the color, texture and light of this photograph and have worked hard on the print to make it especially tasty. IMO, that doesn’t mean pushing saturation over the top. I have both a mental and technical struggle with oversaturation, a feature of many photographs these days. But I also want it to pop, so instead of relying on saturation I’ve worked on local contrast all throughout the image. I think it came out really well, but I’m biased. :)

Yard Car

“Night Geometry” really hits the mark of the exhibit prospectus: it illustrates the beauty and use of color in my personal photographic space, night photography. This is one of the best examples I’ve shot of the way multiple different colors of light cast overlapping shadows at night, and how those overlaps combine to make new forms, shapes and colors that you’d never see during daylight hours. A technical description of this photograph would be: shadows cast by (I think) three light sources as they combine under a stairway. The artistic description could be: an explosion of geometric shapes in varying shades of pastel colors. This is one of my favorite photographs and I’m delighted to be able to share it.

Night Geometry

I hope you get a chance to see the Dreaming In Color exhibit, it should be an extraordinary and beautiful show. I plan to be at the opening, maybe I’ll see you there!

Exhibit Dates: November 09, 2019 through December 10, 2019 with an opening reception Saturday, November 9th from 5-8PM

LightBox Photographic

1045 Marine Drive, Astoria Oregon

Storytelling at the Scandinavian Festival by John Ritchie

I finally made it to the Scandinavian Festival in Junction City - something I’ve been meaning to do for many years but never got around to. I’m glad I did! Not only was it a fun and interesting time, but the people watching (and people photography) was fascinating and fruitful.

I used the opportunity to practice capturing people moments and gestures. Peoples’ expressions can be challenging because they’re constantly in motion and are usually fleeting. It requires constant readiness, careful watching, and quick reflexes to see when something is about to happen, quickly compose, and take the photo.

The most interesting of these tell stories. With photography’s power of freezing momentary expressions and juxtaposing unrelated elements, a story can be manufactured from almost nothing. The story doesn’t need to be true to make it engaging but, in my opinion, it shouldn’t dishonor the subjects.

I had an excellent time finding the stories in these photographs. I hope you enjoy them too.

The Cat Park by John Ritchie

Almost two years ago, my wife and I were adopted by a cat named Gatsby. I’ve avoided posting photographs of him because cat photographs are a little thick on the ground. What would make my photographs different from the 2.93 trillion other cat photos out there (other than Gatsby’s obvious superiority as a cat)? But this posting is not about our cat, it’s about the Cat Park I’ve created for him in our back yard. This may look like another tale of cat obsession but it’s not - this is a story about Art. ;^)

When we adopted Gatsby, he came with a history of running away - he was on the lam from his previous owner, again, when he showed up in our yard. After we formally adopted him, we didn’t want him to wander off so he became an Indoor Kitty. But this is akin to a CAFO - in my opinion, cats’ natural state is to roam free. Gatsby was OK with it, kind of, but he was bored. So last year I rebuilt our back yard fences and installed a containment mesh all around the top. Since that time, Gatsby has been the ruler of our back yard and he is a much more active and happier cat.

Gatsby in the Containment Compound

Gatsby in the Containment Compound

Gatsby practicing martial arts with Carrie

Gatsby practicing martial arts with Carrie

When my friend Joni Kabana heard about the fence project and knew I could build things, she talked me into helping her build a Chicken Shack Bar out on her property in Central Oregon. That’s a different story but it’s related to this one in two ways. It triggered me to tear down an old awning/trellis thing we’ve been meaning to get rid of so I could salvage the old 4x6 cedar beams for the Bar, and it got me thinking about constructing with reclaimed materials and the value of aged-looking structures.

When the trellis was torn apart it left two tall 4x4 posts, supporting clematises, standing at the edge of our patio. I decided to build a cat climbing gym based on those two posts using materials reclaimed from the trellis. Because of the materials and its likely temporariness, I constructed the gym quickly to look haphazard and homegrown. But the main goal was that Gatsby love it.

The Cat Gym

The Cat Gym

The Gym has two towers, each of which is over 7 feet tall: the Crow’s Nest and the Grooming Gazebo. The towers are joined by a 12-foot-long Rickety Bridge. There are a series of platforms going up each tower that Gatsby can use to go up and down. There is an all-important scratching post at the bottom that he’s whittling his way through.

Gatsby spends hours of every day in the Gazebo, but he prefers to take his after-dinner nap in the Nest, where the evening sun gives him a final warming before going down. He has also been known to sleep on the Bridge.

The Grooming Gazebo - also known as the Sleeping Pagoda

The Grooming Gazebo - also known as the Sleeping Pagoda

Cranky Cat in the Crow’s Nest

Cranky Cat in the Crow’s Nest

The Rickety Bridge is also suitable for napping…

The Rickety Bridge is also suitable for napping…

The Cat Park also has a cherry tree that Gatsby loves to climb.

Gatsby in the cherry tree.

Gatsby in the cherry tree.

In the Spring, when all the cat-high undergrowth grew in under the cherry tree, Gatsby no longer went into the tree very much because he didn’t have a good launch/landing pad. So I built a cat ladder to bridge over the tall growth. Gatsby now runs up and down the ladder to get into the tree. This may sound a bit like cat pampering, but it is actually an important component of the overall art piece. :)

20190701_093112_00344_ecw.jpg

I achieved my goal of making a structure and yard that Gatsby loves. He spends almost all day, every day, outside. And because we’re spending a lot more time out there with him, our yard looks nicer than it ever has before. Not least because there’s an interesting cat gym structure in it.

Cat in the Garden

Cat in the Garden