Biography
James Reeder lives and works in Brooklyn. He earned a degree from Pacific Union College in CA. He has been included in dozens of exhibitions in New York and beyond. Recent exhibitions include Sous Les Etoiles Gallery, New York; Space 22 Gallery, Seoul; Gallery Kayafas, Boston; Storefront Ten Eyck, Brooklyn; 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo; Projective City, Paris; and Mixed Greens in New York. Solo exhibition venues include Lesley Heller Workspace, New York; A.M. Richard Fine Art in Brooklyn; and ATA Window Gallery in San Francisco. From 2013-16, Reeder was director and curator at Silver Projects photography space in Brooklyn.

“Untitled photographic objects” statement
I begin by taking photographs from magazines and books. I reassemble and rephotograph these found images as objects in a studio. Source material includes images of hands in gestures of labor and images of artifacts from the do-it-yourself history of photography, science, and technology popular in printed media in the last century through today. These images reference a ritual of the analogue at the point when labor and leisure begin to merge. I locate analog source material using keyword searches within digital networks, the studio acting as mediator between analog and digital. The paradoxical relationship between substitute and original is also at play, reinforced by built stands and other methods of display. The images are decontextualized in this staged studio setting and become open-ended, intersecting and looping back into the constant rush of visual information. My photographs construct a disjointed and disorienting mashup based around the acts of seeing and doing, around gaze, gesture, and the photograph.

“Paralandscape” statement
My photographs reconstruct sites where anticipation has accumulated as an artifact of future experience and discovery of place; they are records of the substitution of anticipation for experience. My photographs use my drawings as both starting point and object in the image, combined with found objects. These miniature staged landscapes are built within the context of natural and man made structures of overwhelming proportion, and scientific explanations for natural phenomena. My photographs reduce the colossal and long-enduring structures to fragile and transitory symbols that offer only glimpses. I'm using analog photography because anticipation is inherent in the silver nitrate process. The latent image that exists on the unprocessed film, and the wait in the darkroom for the image to appear are natural extensions into process of the theme of anticipation in my work. The monochrome palette furthers the idea of a glimpse into possibility by reduction to shapes and symbols, while simultaneously remarking on photography's history of truthful document.

Contact
james @ jareeder.com

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