artist statement | James Bleecker
James treats the object before his lens as an icon, possessed of inner light. Recording a series of exposures over the course an hour or more, he captures an array of lighting and atmospheric effects. In the studio he fuses these exposures into a single image; the flotsam and jetsam of the everyday – traffic, clutter, signs, power lines – blur or disappear. James's work distills from many moments a sense of timelessness.
Since graduating from The Rhode Island School of Design in 1982, James's work in photography, film and multi-media has drawn patronage from The Frick Collection, the Rockefeller family, The American Museum of Natural History, The Baltimore Museum of Art, and The Morgan Library & Museum. His films documenting the historic Hudson River Valley have received the Golden Award from The American Association of Museums. James has recently completed his first major book, Tuxedo Park: The Historic Houses. The artist lives in New York City's Greenwich Village.
Printed on watercolor paper, his grand-scale compositions hover somewhere between photography and the idealized landscape paintings of the Hudson River School.
– Hudson Valley Magazine
Rich, pastoral photographs reveal Bleecker’s distinct style of fusing exposures taken at various times of day to yield dreamy and painterly effects.
– Country Living Magazine
James is the Hudson Valley’s premier landscape photographer.
– Ned Sullivan, President, Scenic Hudson
Others like us will learn from his visions and be inspired.
– Editors, AIA Guide to New York City Landmarks
James’s work communicates the importance of historic preservation with an immediacy and eloquence not attainable in any other media.
– Municipal Art Society, New York City
EVENTS
Tuxedo Park, The Historic Houses, a 300-page book featuring James's architectural photography, will be published by the Tuxedo Historical Society in September 2007. The sumptuously produced coffee table book visits a private enclave of Gilded Age estates just forty miles northwest of Manhattan – but seemingly continents away.
Tuxedo Park: Another Country, at Allen Sheppard Gallery in New York City's Chelsea art district. The show features James's photographs of Tuxedo Park (see above) as well as a selection of his landscape photographs of the American northeast. June 7 to July 7, 2007, with an artist's reception on Thursday, June 7, 6 - 8pm.
All the Beautiful Things in the World at The Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan. State-of-the art digital techniques immerse viewers in the dazzling Medieval and Renaissance treasures collected by legendary banker J.P Morgan.