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Photographic Study Series - April 2010
Title: j.frede - Case Study Nest
Medium: Digital Photographs
Details
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Online gallery of images from the Photographic Study Series
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This is the first in a series of photographs that take a look at the materials and textures of bird’s nests. Approaching the work from the perspective that a nest is an architectural form, but visually focusing on the complexity and seemingly chaotic construction of found materials. Straw to fabric patting, string to human hair every nest ever made has been uniquely different depending on the accessible materials, even more so in the urban landscapes.
For this set I photographed a humming birds nest I found in Los Angeles. Upon reading up on humming bird nests I learned that they make the bottoms thicker and the top edges thinner to control the amount of heat in the nest. The mothers will sitter lower in the nest on cold nights and stand higher to allow air to blow through the thin upper sides. I find the engineering of nests fascinating considering it was knowledge based on instincts.
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Photographic Study Series - January 2010
Title: j.frede - Schaefer Series
Medium: Digital Photographs
Details
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Online gallery of images from the Photographic Study Series
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Schaefer Series is a collaborative project I did in with photorealist painter Justin Schaefer. Justin approached me about taking photos to use as references for a new series of large-scale photo real paintings he wanted to do. We each brought ideas to the table and the final photographs came out somewhere between Noir and Nightmares.
A number of the paintings he is doing from this series will be featured in his MFA Thesis show at Cal State Long Beach later this year.
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"Behind Closed Doors" - Manifest Equality
Title: j.frede - Behind Closed Doors
Medium: Photography; 6 - 24" x 36" giclée prints
Exhibition Details
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Manifest Equality Gallery
1341 Vine Street
Hollywood, CA
Start Time: Wednesday, March 3, 2010
End Time: Sunday, March 7, 2010
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Taken from the "Meet The Artist" Blog on the Manifest Equality website.
Why have you chosen to participate in Manifest Equality?
In November 2008 while I was overwhelmed with joy from our success of electing President Obama, I was also crushed and very angry at the passing of the Proposition 8 Ban on Gay Marriage. In the weeks that followed we found out that many of the Californians that voted to pass Proposition 8 were minorities that and also voted to elect President Obama. The key reason being that the church had promoted this as a moral issue. Had the minorities seen it as the Civil Rights issue that it actually is, I feel the out come could have been very different. Misinformation and the lack of knowledge about the issue was a key factor in this happening. I feel Manifest Equality will raise awareness and in turn has an opportunity to inform countless people through art about the importance of civil rights.
Describe a bit about your submission to the gallery or the creative process you are putting into it?
My work for Manifest Equality is titled "Behind Closed Doors" and depicts a classic picnic setting enclosed by the walls of a living room. "Behind Closed Doors" consists of a set of 9 photos of Ryan Inouye and Joseph Imhauser in a picnic setting and was created to reference things Heterosexual couples take for granted, such as having to take an act as innocent as a picnic and hide it behind closed doors due to the general publics reaction to Homosexual affection. While less of an issue here in Los Angeles, much of the country has a negative reaction to a gay couples showing affection in public. Not unlike the issues interracial couples faced in the past and still today in the darkest corners of our country.
The title "Behind Closed Doors" is meant as a reference to the social stigma attached to being gay/lesbian/transgender. The term is often associated with scandalous or unmoral activities; this coupled with the innocent imagery of a simple picnic makes a powerful connection that addresses the absurdity of the stigma.
The first image in the set is a close up of a freshly bitten apple, which has long been associated with a fall from grace or the forbidden fruit in religious texts. I felt this reference was needed due to the church being driving force behind the stigma remaining to this day, and Religious organizations being behind the unconstitutional ban on Gay Marriage in California. The beautiful irony of the fictitious “Forbidden Fruit” was that it is said to have came from the tree of Knowledge.
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Postcard Series no.001 - January 2010
Title: Reclamation no.23
Medium: Postcard; 4"x 6"
Project Details
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I have always loved postcards and decided I would start a series of postcards featuring my photographs.
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Photographic Study Series - December 2009
Title: j.frede - The Old Zoo
Medium: Digital Photographs;
Details
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Online gallery of images from the Photographic Study Series
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Opened in 1912 with 15 animals, most of the enclosures that still exist today were built in the 1930s by Works Progress Administration and County Relief Workers the Zoo was made in the iron bars/pacing animal style that was standard for zoo's of that era, marred with controversy from being Inadequately funded and maintained by the city, the zoo struggled for years with bad press and animal escapes. The Zoo was abandoned in 1966 when the current Los Angeles Zoo was built.
Set in a quiet corner of Griffith Park the Old Zoo is now a picnic area which is rather surreal but seems very appropriate in Los Angeles. Every time I visit the Old Zoo Picnic Area The mysterious tone of the place never seems to fade, and with every visit i seem to find new details or structures that i had missed previously.
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Photographic Study Series - November 2009
Title: j.frede - Cornered
Medium: Digital Photographs;
Details
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Online gallery of images from the Photographic Study Series
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Corners have long been considered traps for negative energy in Metaphysics and Paganism. Through out modern times people who believe in the Paranormal have considered ceiling corners of homes portholes for ghosts or spirits. Animals and babies are often observed staring intently into specific corners of rooms. Regardless of your spiritual beliefs or skepticism in such, I would venture to say that everyone has at some point in their life entered a room that didn’t feel right, call it intuition or sixth sense, some locations seem to make us uncomfortable for an unexplained reason.
Many directions can be taken from the thought of corners, one definition is “a dangerous or awkward position, especially from which escape is difficult”, while the same word means “The meeting of two streets” which is a crossroads, commonly seen as a place of options. There are many meanings of the word corner in the English Language but the juxtaposition of these two seem very powerful to me. It seems sometimes being forced into a corner where escape is difficult is in many ways a crossroad.
This photo study was done with these theories in mind, the images range from abstract to contrasting to dingy, and are meant to reflect all that happens in our personal spaces, whether literally or metaphorically speaking, corners are ever-present in our lives; good, bad or neutral.
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Title: j.frede - "Fire & Water" Series
Medium: Photographs; 6 - 24" x 36" giclée prints
Exhibition Details
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Playhouse Collective
Long Beach, CA
About The Images: "These photographs are groupings of smoke and rain clouds that challange our perspective of what is peaceful and what is menacing. Visually the smoke images appear to be billowing clouds which we normally associate with serenity. The rain clouds, however are dark and brooding and bring a sense of apprehension. The dark rain cloud is actaully the giver of life whilst the smoke, being a biproduct of fire, is the destroyer of life in this instance. "
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Photographic Study Series - October 2009
Title: j.frede - Neons
Medium: Digital Photographs;
Details
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Online gallery of images from the Photographic Study Series
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Neons consist of detail photos taken of Tom Patchett’s collection of vintage neon signs housed in the private bar at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica, California. Comprised of various neon signs among them, The original Brown Derby sign, as well as signs from drug stores, butcher shops, sporting goods and hotels.
The signs are lovely and haunting. The glow of the tubes juxtaposed against the worn and weathered paint of the old signs is beautiful and mysterious. There is something about Neon signs that capture the attention and draw your eyes to them. The soft unnatural glow creates an effect similar to a shiny lure mesmerizing a fish.
Avoiding the traditional technique of photographing something as clique as a neon sign, I choose to capture abstract images of the signs features from the tubes to the chipped graphics to the soft ambient light produced by the various colors. The result is this collection of photographs documenting their vivid stillness.
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Soundwalk 2009 - Long Beach, CA
Title: j.frede - Black Gold
Medium: Installation; Metal, Oil, Sound
Exhibition Details
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Soundwalk 2009
Long Beach Arts District
Long Beach, CA
Date: October 3rd, 2009
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Black Gold consists of three oil drums each raised six inches above the ground, each of which has a single color light, red, white or blue. The barrels house speakers playing recordings of “Pump Jacks”, the large pumping machines used to extract oil from the wells. The top of each barrel had a shallow reservoir of oil to present the illusion of a full barrel of oil, which also in turn references the illusion of oil being of an endless supply.
Black Gold is presented to reference the state of the world we currently live in, and the imperialistic drive of the United States and the oil trade.
As a child growing up in southern New Mexico I spent a lot of time around Pump Jacks as the Oil Field is the primary area of employment for that region. As we would pass an Oil Refinery we would complain about the smell and my grandfather would always say, “That is the smell of money”.
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Photographic Study Series - October 2009
Title: j.frede - Parking Structures
Medium: Digital Photographs;
Details
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Online gallery of images from the Photographic Study Series
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I have always enjoyed the feeling of an empty parking garage. I’m not sure if its the stillness of a utilitarian space or the soiled white walls that have a mysterious 2001 Space Odyssey feeling to them, but there is something intriguing and beautiful about the uniform emptiness of a vacant parking structure.
I photographed four separate structures in the Los Angeles area during August and September of 2009. None of the images have been edited or manipulated in any way, the images sometimes appear to be edited due to the composition of the photographs and the duel layers created by shooting between the levels of the parking garages.
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