I’m happy to announce my 2020 workshops with Maine Media Workshops, with a total of four week-long workshops scheduled for the upcoming year (including the dramatic return of The Winter Night Landscape in February). Sign up at the Maine Media site, and please feel free to contact me with any questions!
Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada
I am done with my long journey out to the northern Rockies and am now back in Maine. I'm slowly catching up on things as I get back up to speed (losing power for two days didn't help!), so if you are still waiting on a response for me, let me know!
It will take a long time to go through all of my photographs, but it was a wonderful trip. 9000 miles of driving, nine national parks (5 in the U.S., 4 in Canada), about 15 snowstorms of various intensities, and approximately 5500 photographs.
Glacier National Park, Montana, 2003
On Friday morning (Sept. 20th) I’m heading west to Montana (as well as Alberta, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and points in between) on a long photography trip. I haven’t been able to make it on a real photography trip this year so I’m excited to hit the road again. I’m not sure when I’ll be back but it should be in mid-October.
My last trip to Glacier National Park in Montana was in 2003, and that is where I am heading as a starting point. I wasn’t particularly serious about photography back then and I look forward to photographing in one of my favorite places in the world with a (hopefully!) more developed aesthetic and with modern gear.
Alas, my main reason for going there now is to try and photograph the glaciers before they are gone, as that day is coming very soon. On this trip I will photograph the northern Rockies for my Annals of the Former World project, recording the state of these landscapes before they are inexorably changed by the changing climate.
I’ll end with a famous quote from John Muir:
“The mountains are calling & I must go & I will work on while I can, studying incessantly.”
Usually you see just the first half of this quote, but I find the full quote (from an 1873 letter to his sister) more illuminating. Instead of just a call to experience nature, the full quote reveals his desire to study and protect the natural world, responsibility in addition to pleasure. I will certainly enjoy immersing myself in the western parks again, but I go with serious purpose.
Fjallsjökull #5
I’m excited to announce the opening of my new solo exhibition at Kingman Gallery in Deer Isle, Maine. The exhibition is up and running now and extends through September 8th. We’re having an opening reception this coming Sunday, August 11th, from 2-5 pm.
The exhibition includes 11 framed pieces from my Iceland residency last summer, and you can check out work from all of the gallery artists as well. If you’d like to see more of my Iceland photographs from last summer as a sneak preview, I’ve finally put up a gallery of this work on my website.
Hope to see you Sunday!
“Snæfellsjökull #1”, Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.
The wonderful Melt Down exhibition from earlier this year at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland travels south to Portland’s Lewis Gallery (at the primary Portland Public Library at 5 Monument Square) in an exhibition that extends through September 21st. The traveling exhibit is a bit smaller in terms of included work but should still be amazing.
The opening reception is this Friday, August 2nd, from 6-8 pm. I’ll unfortunately miss the opening as I’ll be picking up my daughter from Girl Scout camp on the other side of the state, but I highly recommend seeing this exhibition.
“Pyrotechnic #185”, Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.
This is the first update in a long while as I’ve been posting news in another place the last six months, but that experiment is now over and I’m back here.
So, to begin catching up, I’m included in a group exhibition at the absolutely lovely Thos. Moser gallery in Freeport, Maine, through November 2nd, 2019. Selections from my Pyrotechnic project are included. Ten other photographers are included in the show and it is definitely worth a visit.