Moon When Cherries Turn Black

November 17, 2017 in New Work, The Moon

I just released five new photographs in my Adventures in Celestial Mechanics project. The five photographs are named after the Sioux name for the August Full Moon, Moon When Cherries Turn Black. Enjoy!

Article in Digital Output Magazine

February 10, 2017 in The Moon, Presentations

February's issue of Digital Output magazine features me in an article about artists who do their own large format fine art printing. I'm not sure if the screen capture above is actually readable, but I'm excited to be featured in the magazine!

Favorites of 2016

January 16, 2017 in New Work, The Moon

Every January I like to reflect back upon my work from the previous year (here is the list from last year), an exercise that I find both useful and enjoyable. As part of this process I choose my favorite photographs of the year. With now five active projects, choosing a dozen photographs was not easy.

I'm going to start off with my favorites from my newest project, Harmony of the Spheres. The photograph leading this post is a bit of a transition one for me as it bridges in a way my night photographs, my full moon photographs, and this newest project.

One of the key aspects of this project is musicality, and this next one best embodies that for me:

This photograph is another favorite and represents more of the analytical and constructed work aspects of this project.

My East of the Sun, West of the Moon project is also continuing, and I've chosen two photographs from this project. This first one is from my artist residency at Chiricahua National Monument, and I just love that hint of the last bit of sunset light.

This photograph is one I love for its celestial feel...

From my Pyrotechnic project I have two new favorites, too. I'm continually surprised that even after many years of photographing fireworks shows I end up with new looks.

My Adventures in Celestial Mechanics project has three of my favorites from 2016. This first one is the Mourning Moon from November and is a big departure for me, with the moon being so bright that it is blown out (something I generally avoid). I love how powerful the pure white moon is in this photograph.

Another favorite moon photograph from 2016...the clouds were wonderful that evening.

And the Quiet Moon from January 2016...I have no idea how this will translate on the screen, but I absolutely love the print. And I think we've found out how far towards abstract I can go with this series.

And, last but not least, these are my two favorites from my Codex Natura project, both from here in Camden and both with a celestial vibe.

Mourning Moon

January 13, 2017 in New Work, The Moon

Today I've released three new photographs in my Adventures in Celestial Mechanics project. These three are from November 2016 and I've chosen the Mourning Moon name for the group.

Mourning Moon I is an unusual one for me as I've let the details of the moon go to pure white. I love the color and overall feel of it, though, and the purity of that white moon strikes me as quite powerful.

New Adventures in Celestial Mechanics images

July 18, 2016 in New Work, The Moon

I've just finished up a new batch of photographs for my Adventures in Celestial Mechanics project. First up is February's Bone Moon, a few of which I've included below:

Also in February was the Storm Moon, from Marshall Point...

...and lastly, these two photographs are from March's Moon of Wakening.

Favorites of 2015

January 20, 2016 in New Work, The Moon

It is once again that time of year when I, along with many other artists, reflect back upon the work from the previous year. I find it both useful and enjoyable to review my work and choose my favorite photographs from the year.

2015 was a very successful year for me creatively, I believe, as I continued advancing my previous two long-term projects (Pyrotechnic and Adventures in Celestial Mechanics) and also launched two new projects, Codex Natura and East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Given these four big projects, I found it satisfying to choose three images from each body of work to create my list of 12 favorite photographs of 2015.

As time goes on, other images may replace some of these in the end, but these are the images that tell the story of 2015.

I'm going to start with my Codex Natura project. This project has been extraordinarily fun as I seek out new material to use for the project and also continue to experiment with printing techniques for these very dark images. Besides the photograph leading off this post, my other two favorites are below - #15 is a brand new one, too:

I also continue to try to photograph each full moon from somewhere here in Maine for my Adventures in Celestial Mechanics project, though life and weather often conspire against me. This project has been changing for me as the photographs I'm taking are increasingly more abstract and subtle, like this one:

I should have qualified that subtle statement, as while most of the new work can be described that way, some of the new ones cannot. As you'll see below, the next two are a bit different...first up is the Blood Moon from September's lunar eclipse (a situation I've been trying to photograph for many years), and the Moon of the Ripening I from October is, well, pretty epic.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon is my other new project and I'm very excited about it as well. The challenges of these dark color images as well as the circular format have been pretty invigorating. Here are my three favorites, so far, from this new project:

...and last but not least we have my Pyrotechnic project. I continue to haunt local public firework shows seeking out new images. Here are my three favorites from 2015:

For those of you who made it all the way to the end, I'm also including a sneak peek at some of my Arizona/Southwest images from my fall artist residency. I'm still working through the very large pile of images, but these are some early ones that I find promising.

Chiricahua National Monument - Dark skies are one of the main attractions of SE Arizona, and they did not disappoint.

Chiricahua National Monument. I spent many days making photographs along the lines of this one -- I definitely think it has potential for a project.

White Sands National Monument. I'm not sure if this photograph is a keeper, but the many-colored reflections from the sand (mica) there if you got just at the right angle made one of my favorite sights I've ever seen.

Two New September Exhibitions in Maine

September 08, 2015 in Exhibitions, The Moon

I'm excited to announce two new exhibitions that include my work.

Landscapes Exhibition at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado

March 16, 2015 in Exhibitions, The Moon

"Rice Moon I", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

I am extremely excited to have my photograph Rice Moon I accepted into the upcoming Landscapes exhibition at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO. The C4FAP has been something of my white whale, as I've been unsuccessful there many times in the past.

The online exhibition looks like it should be a great show (jurored by Chantel Paul), and I'm pleased to have this photograph in particular selected as it is one of my recent favorites. The exhibition will extend from June 5th - July 18th, 2015.

Favorites of 2014

January 30, 2015 in New Work, The Moon

"Autumn Moon I", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

Like many artists, I like to review my work from the previous year to get a sense of what I've accomplished and to come up ideas with new ways forward as well. Things have been a bit crazy this year, so I'm just barely completing this process by the end of January, but the process remains the same.

The images in this post are my favorites of 2014. As time goes on, other images may replace some of these in my end, but these are the images that tell the story of 2014 for me. Please note that these are what I consider my favorites, not the best, a much different and of course subjective list.

As always, I'd love to hear what you think, so let me know if you have any favorites yourself!

I'll lead off this list with Autumn Moon I above, a photograph I created from the top of Cadillac Mountain during my Acadia artist residency. This was a moonset across Penobscot Bay -- that mountain in the lower right is actually Ducktrap Mountain (a/k/a Point Lookout) in Northport, probably 30 or 40 miles or so across the bay.

I've continued to work on my Pyrotechnic series throughout 2014 and I have a few favorites from this series. First up is this one, which is currently in my show at the 555 Gallery in Boston.

"Pyrotechnic #128", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

This Pyrotechnic photograph was from the fireworks show in December and is one I haven't released yet. Some of this series, like this one, really sing when printed very large where you can see the seemingly infinite details.

"Pyrotechnic #184", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

I particularly love this one...this one reminds me of a landscape drawing in the Chinese tradition, a particular influence on me right now.

"Pyrotechnic #133", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

In a similar style is a new project I'm working on relating to beaches. I'm still working on how I want this series to look, so the final result may differ from this. This photograph is from a camping trip on Hermit Island here in Maine.

Even though this project is still in its formative stages, I can't tell the story of 2014 without remembering this particular beach on Hermit Island and the exciting process of finding this beach and creating these photographs.

Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

My Adventures in Celestial Mechanics project was one of my primary focuses this year. Besides the Autumn Moon I photograph leading off this post, I also particularly loved Dog Days Moon I and Dragon Moon I, both of which explore a much different palette than my photographs from previous years.

"Dog Days Moon I", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

"Dragon Moon I", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

Rice Moon I, below, is in many ways of the perfect embodiment of my move towards abstraction with my full moon images.

My artist residency at Acadia National Park this year was of course a massive influence on my year, so it is not surprising that even more images from this 3-week timeframe make this list.

First up are two photographs from an amazing show of the Northern Lights from the top of Cadillac Mountain. I've been trying for years to photograph this type of display and finally succeeded, and it was one of the highlights of my year.

"Nightsong I", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

"Nightsong II", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

During my residency I also photographed many of the other natural wonders of the Schoodic region of Acadia at all times of day and night. Schoodic has many wonderful features but the aspect that I will always associate with my time there is the clouds. I've never seen as beautiful and varied clouds as I've seen in my times there.

Another new project I started in 2014 relates to Jasper Beach up in the Down East region, one of my favorites places in Maine. I'm still processing the first images but I love how things are looking so far...

Yet another new project that is still under wraps involves moonlight...I'm still trying to decide how the project will go, but this early photograph has me excited about the possibilities.

And last, but not least, another new project brought this night shot of a stop sign just around the corner from the house. That red line near the bottom is a car taillight during the long exposure. More on this and the other projects soon...

"Stop Monsanto", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

Autumn Moon

January 20, 2015 in New Work, The Moon

I've been going through my work from last year and I'm finally ready to share many of what I think are the best. During my residency at Acadia National Park, I was able to photograph the full moon setting from the top of Cadillac Mountain. This group of photographs of September's Autumn Moon were the result.

"Autumn Moon II", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

"Autumn Moon III", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.

"Autumn Moon IV", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.