Trees, Community Art Installation

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“To find the wealth of information trees have to share,” writes paleoclimatologist Dr. Valerie Trouet in Tree Story, “we must simply learn how to look.”

From February 5 – July 23, 2022, the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) and the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research (LTRR) will stage installations together that follow historical, cultural, and scientific narratives inspired by trees.

With more than 75 images and objects assembled from CCP and LTRR’s collections, trees stir in their leaves creates a multilayered experience with photography and dendrochronology (the study of annual rings in trees) in CCP’s Alice Chaiten Baker Interdisciplinary Gallery.

My work from Truffle Dogs will be installed along with works by Ansel Adams, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Barbara Crane, Kozo Miyoshi, Doug and Mike Starn, Aaron Siskind, Rosalind Solomon, John Yang and more.

For more info >>

Trees, Community Art Installation, Alice Chaiten Baker Interdisciplinary Gallery, Center for Creative Photography, Tuscon, AZ

Authentic Portraiture featuring Painterly Lighting

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Authentic Portraiture featuring Painterly Lighting (Outside the Studio)
Thu Feb 3, 2022 3:00pm - 4:00pm ET (Recorded)

How do you create a signature style with lighting? What is your go-to travel kit when traveling? Why is hiding your main light with your fill light important? How does color add to a painterly aesthetic? What is the value of a leaf shutter and shooting medium format? I will answer all these questions and more, as I teach you my approach to painterly portraiture.

This session is recorded and you may watch here:

The Guardian feature

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"That's pretty cool," said Gus, hearing the news that his portrait (among others) were published in The Guardian (UK) today. What joy sharing the news! Thank you, Sarah Gilbert, for the photo feature, a lovely outcome from the Format portfolio review last March.

READ HERE >>

R. J. Kern published on December 23, 2021 in the Culture section of The Guardian (UK).

Luminous Landscape feature

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When I began my research into the technical realms of medium format photography and advanced lighting tools a decade ago, I leaned into the resources on the website, Luminous Landscape. The forums were filled with people who loved to share and help with all things technical. Most of the enthusiasts are highly skilled engineers, executive professionals passionate about photography. Often, I’d need a PhD to understand the answers to my questions, but this is where I learned what I know today.

I was excited when Josh Reichmann offered to share my work on the very platform that inspired me in early 2010. It’s full circle, sharing more about the “why to” and less on the “how to.” Since, I had a lovely experience working with Abby Ferguson, we collaborated again to share a deeper story.

Read Article >>

Exhibition in Berlin

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Three prints from The Unchosen Ones project are exhibited in Berlin, Germany as part of “Portraits Without Borders” group show, Fotogalerie Friedrichshain through Feb 4, 2022. The show brings together 29 artists from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America, and North America, selected from 260 applications last fall.

Fotogalerie Friedrichshain doesn’t follow the “pay to play” notion, prevalent in the US photo exhibition scene. They’ve stood the test of time, as they were the first art gallery in former East Germany to focus only on photography. Exhibition opportunities like this are a wonderful opportunity to connect with other artists and see work in a similar vein. Thank you to Claire Ducresson-Boët for the installation photographs.

These pastoral studies feature Carlana, Eric, and Hannah from The Unchosen Ones (pictured left to right).

Star Tribune feature

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“Chins up, heads high, The Unchosen Ones faced the camera again,” wrote Jennifer Brooks in her article, “New book celebrates Minnesota kids who didn't win at the county fair” in the Star Tribune on November 27, 2021. She quoted several of the kids from the project, offering lessons on resillence. Thank you, Jennifer, for spending time sharing the project!

Read Article >>

Kol and Annabell at the 2016 Anoka County Fair. From the upcoming book, “The Unchosen Ones,” by R.J. Kern.

Kol and Annabell at the 2016 Anoka County Fair. From the upcoming book, “The Unchosen Ones,” by R. J. Kern.

19th-century farm portrait awarded IPA 1st Place

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Work created from The Unchosen Ones project in 2020 was awarded 1st place in the Portrait / Lifestyle category by the International Photography Awards, affiliated with the Lucie Foundation, a charitable foundation whose mission is to honor photographers, discover, and cultivate emerging talent and promote the appreciation of photography.

Hannah and her family live on a Century Farm, a farm with continuous ownership by a family for 100 years or more. Nearly 11,000 Minnesota farms have been recognized as Century Farms since 1976, a way to promote agriculture and honor historic family farms in the state.

Hannah, Pastoral Study, 2020, archival pigment print

Hannah, Pastoral Study, 2020, archival pigment print

ACP 2021 "Ones to Watch" Exhibition

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Atlanta celebrates photography! “What We Known: ACP 2021 Ones to Watch,” exhibition at MINT gallery, curated by Mary Stanley in conjunction with the 2021 Atlanta Celebrates Photography Festival. Exhibition runs through November 6, 2021. Works for sale.

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Special thanks to the gregarious, every loving Mary Stanley for the invitation to be apart of this experience.

Concordia College: Visiting Artist Workshop, Exhibition & Artist Talk

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Concordia College invited me recently to be a visiting artist, complete with a series of lighting workshops for undergrad photo students, an exhibition of nine works, and an artist talk. I also made it my “unofficial book reveal” as well as a short documentary series I’ve been working on for the last year. Three participants from The Unchosen Ones project: Kenzi, Rylie, and Louis, stood up with a round of applause during my talk. I was proud to see them in the audience, along with their significant others. I brought the same backdrop and lighting equipment used for the series whiling indulging students in the nuances of how to “hide your main light with your fill” as well as other technicals.

After almost a year in production for the book, this experience offered reason enough for the effort. Special thanks to Chris Mortenson for the invitation and the Faculty of Fine Arts for their support. You make this artist SWOON! Photo credit: Chris Mortenson

The college newspaper, The Concordian, did a nice write-up, thanks to David Lindgren >>

The exhibition was installed in the Gallery Bridge at Concordia College, depicted below at night. Photograph by R. J. Kern.

Critical Mass 2021 Top 50

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I’m honored my work from my project The Unchosen Ones: Portraits of an American Pastoral has been chosen for Critical Mass 2021 Top 50. I appreciate the support of Photolucida and the jurors for this opportunity to share my work. When I began this project in 2015, I never had sights on the critical-acclaim that would follow. I couldn’t have done this alone and appreciate the support from mentors, my gallerists at Burnet Fine Art & Advisory and Olson Larsen Galleries, and the trusting participants from #TheUnchosenOnes project. I want to give a special thank you to Sarah Leen for believing in this project from the beginning, Alison Nordström for writing for the book, Paula Tognarelli for offering my first museum solo at Photolucida, and MW Editions for making the trade book possible (early copies arrive soon!). Ewa Zebrowski thank you for being a lovely writing buddy and Hans Weise for collaboration with the upcoming video documentary.

David, Pastoral Study, 2020

David, Pastoral Study, 2020

110th Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition

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I’m honored to have my work awarded an Honorable Mention by Carla Rodriguez, juror of the 110th Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition in St. Paul, MN. The show runs through Sept 6. I hope to make it to the fair this weekend to see all the art in the show, the largest juried art exhibition in the state. Scroll to the end to see the winning photograph.

I want to share with you the back story not only of the exhibited photograph, but the project as a whole, and the specific sheep featured in the photograph, Tantor. The story features a poetic ending. First, the backstory.

Josilin and Tantor, 4-H Lamb Lead Show, Minnesota State Fair, 2015.

Josilin and Tantor, 4-H Lamb Lead Show, Minnesota State Fair, 2015.

The Unchosen Ones began with a visit to a quintessentially American event, the state fair. I was in Minnesota, where I live, which still has a strong community of small family farms. My longstanding interest in animals and their connection to humans drew me to the 2015 Minnesota State Fair. For my previous project, Divine Animals: The Bovidae, I photographed goats and sheep in lush landscapes throughout Western Europe. I knew I wanted to continue photographing domesticated animals, but my ideas about a new series were still inchoate. As I was canvassing the fair looking for inspiration, I took in all the carefully tended-to animals and their owners, often young children. After the 4-H Lamb Lead show, I met the fourth-place finishers, Josilin, and her sheep, Tantor. I could see Josilin was disappointed, yet she held her head high. Her determination inspired me, and I made a portrait of them. Photographing the pair spurred me to think about my own childhood and its run-of-the- mill disappointments. I had a supportive family and a fulfilling childhood, yet I still vividly remember being picked last for the basketball team and not earning a ribbon at the local science fair, even though I had tried my best. As I grew older, I knew well the feeling of not being chosen—for a job, or for love. But not being chosen for something can have a valuable upside: it can create empathy. Empathy connects people and forges bonds. Later that year, I included the portrait in a Minnesota State Arts Board grant application, and that act would shape my artistic journey.

I began to look for a certain typology: exemplary youth and animals from a small but geographically diverse area in Minnesota. I chose goats and sheep because they were competition animals that also fit within the constraints of the six-foot-wide backdrop I was using. The formality of the backdrop elevated the subjects and also allowed a story to emerge between the animal and the child. My strobe lights failed to flash during my initial session, so I used the diffuse, ambient light of the overcast skies. This serendipitous accident produced a soft tonality I loved: the light fell onto my dignified subject, rendering shadows as though from a painter’s brush. I was drawn to this aesthetic.

Josilin and Escapé, Benton County Fair, Minnesota, 2016 (left) and Josilin and Tantor, Benton County, Minnesota, 2021 (right).

Josilin and Escapé, Benton County Fair, Minnesota, 2016 (left) and Josilin and Tantor, Benton County, Minnesota, 2021 (right).

In 2016, I made 65 portraits of youth contestants at Minnesota county fairs. Each participant—some as young as four years old— spent a year raising an animal, which they entered into a 4-H livestock competition. None of the youth I photographed succeeded in winning an award, despite the obvious care they have given to their animal.

Four years later, in 2020, I returned to photograph the young subjects, asking them what they carried forward from their previous experience. Some of them have continued to pursue animal husbandry while others developed other interests. We imagine some of these kids will choose to continue running their family farms, an unpredictable and demanding way to make a living.

As I created the second group of photographs, I asked them what were their thoughts, their dreams, and their goals for the future? How do they fit in the future of agricultural America?

Place matters to me, especially since these portraits were not taken in a studio. Using a wide-angle lens, I stepped back to view the pastoral environment, with farm machinery and architecture and the occasional barn kitty or chicken cameo.

In January 2021, while completing the book project (forthcoming MW Editions, November 2021), I felt the urge to photograph. I called up Josilin and checked in on how Tantor was doing. She was aging with grace, I learned. I also was told female sheep with “masculine” names, like Tantor, perform better in livestock competitions.

Honorable Mention, 110th Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition, Juror Carla Rodriguez:

Josilin, Pastoral Study, 2021, by R. J. Kern, from the upcoming monograph, The Unchosen Ones: Portraits of an American Pastoral (MW Editions, 2021). Archival pigment print mounted on dibond, 37 x 50 inches, Edition 1 of 3 + AP, 2021, $3600 framed.

Josilin, Pastoral Study, 2021, by R. J. Kern, from the upcoming monograph, The Unchosen Ones: Portraits of an American Pastoral (MW Editions, 2021). Archival pigment print mounted on dibond, 37 x 50 inches, Edition 1 of 3 + AP, 2021, $3600 framed.

Although there is abundant evidence that this way of life is disappearing as kids leave the farm, the crisis of climate change and a concern for both sustainability and stewardship of the land point to a path for survival for these agricultural practices and traditions. I hope county fairs will still be around in a hundred years.

Tantor passed away two weeks after our portrait session.

Tantor, Benton County, Minnesota, 2021 (unpublished)

Tantor, Benton County, Minnesota, 2021 (unpublished)