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Born in 1954 in New Haven Connecticut, John Fletcher discovered
photography through a series of chance events in his final year of public
high school. After graduation and a brief hiatus from school he attended
Ohio University where he studied photography and printmaking. Moving
to New York City in 1979 he worked as a printmaker for a well known
pop artist. A number of years later a solo bicycle trip across Europe
led to a portfolio of black and white photographs that would mark his
re-entry into the world of photography. Returning to New York City he
began a career as a color darkroom technician that spanned more than
twenty years. John presently has a commercial studio in West Paterson
NJ where he does work for design firms, advertising agencies and corporations.
His personal work has been featured in numerous group shows and is held
in private collections.
Artist Statement:
"This body of work from Death Valley brings together my ongoing
interest in the landscape with the (relatively) new process of digital
printmaking. I had been waiting for the time when the permanence of
the digital print would exceed the life expectancy of the more traditional
Type C Print. I believe, and research indicates, that we have reached
that point and have surpassed it. This has opened the door for photographers
such as myself, to have unprecedented control over the color image
at the printmaking stage.
The colors and forms present in these desert landscape are at once
familiar to all who grew up on a diet of television westerns. Still
they take on a beautiful yet somewhat forbidding tone in these color
photographs. With very few exceptions, man does not live here.
Although the landscape is not my only subject matter, it is one that
I often return to for it's moments of solitude and contemplation.
It provides an opportunity to look out beyond ourselves, and perhaps
to glimpse a larger truth."
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