[EV +/-] Exposure Compensation of photography and photographers

© Jarret Murphy

Jarrett Murphy, is a recent graduate from the Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, New York. I find his night landscape photography quite original. His images play with shapes, curves, lines and isolated objects conveying a surreal feel to the scene, that otherwise would be quite mundane. I had the opportunity to run few questions with Jarret and get information on his artistic interest.

These photographs reject and embrace one of my greatest disappointments—that with the deluge of commercial imagery, what was once extraordinary has become common. As commerce increasingly co-opts and embellishes images of natural beauty it simultaneously exalts that beauty and subverts it. To draw people back to reality, it must become hyper-real. I have chosen a process that allows standard subjects to be fantastical, for through long exposure I create single images that appear to freeze single moments but actually represent multiple moments. The finished photograph allows me to create the illusory reality that is, in part, a fantasy.

These images juxtapose the human and the natural. Each image records the duality of man’s presence and absence, as nature is being constructed around and by civilization. To record these landscapes impacted by but vacant of human presence, I impose my own presence while excluding myself and my influence from the scene. Imposing my own presence is lighting these landscapes, while excluding any tangible elements or footprints.- Jarrett Murphy

© Jarret Murphy

The juxtaposition is present in most of the images, but is meant to be subtle. Some of the photographs have roads running through the foreground with tire tracks on them, some have fences or other structures. And sometimes the landscape itself is the result of human influence, such as many of the parks that I’ve shot in that were engineered and designed. The idea is not to see actual people in the images, but to know that the human influence is pervasive, and that nature is being formed by us, or forming itself around us. - Jarrett Murphy

• Please tell me about your beginnings as a photographer and artist?

I do somewhat feel like I was raised to be an artist by my parents, although I’m pretty sure that’s not what they intended. They encouraged me to make as much artwork as wanted, even, as I mentioned, letting me draw or paint on the walls of my bedroom. Art supplies were the only expense they told me they would continually pay for, within reason. I expect all they intended was for me to have an outlet, a backup plan for making sure I didn’t wind up disturbed.

As far as photography goes, I didn’t get into that until I was in high school. I took it the first semester I was allowed to, I guess I was jealous of seeing the upper classmen on the bus showing people their contact sheets. I liked the class, needless to say, and took advanced photography the next semester. There were no classes above that offered, but I took advanced photography again, and they gave me credit for it as long as I did new projects. Then I took an independent study in photography the following year.

• Could you describe your experience at the Rochester Institute of technology? What are the most important topics you learned at school?

I’ll answer those questions backwards I suppose. I’m not sure if I could name any classes I took that were all that much more important than others. I can say that fine art, advertising, and photojournalism students all take the same classes for the first two years, then you choose which field to go into for the next two years. I went to RIT intending to be a fine art photography major, but at the end of my second year I went into advertising photography. Those classes taught me more about light than fine art would have.

My experience at RIT was pretty average I assume, except that most students, even art students didn’t really go out much. There were about five of us that would go out every weekend (all photographers; margaretlejeune.com, nicholasduers.com, kevinnorrisphoto.com, sarahanneward.com, www.seandyroff.com). I guess the single experience that stands out in the midst of the Sony news is a show at an RIT affiliated gallery mid senior year. I wouldn’t have entered if a friend of mine didn’t work there and encourage me to enter. It was perfectly themed for me, surreal landscapes. I had shot my first photograph of the series in April, 7 months earlier, one more in June, and hadn’t shot any more of them. Two of my best friends, Sarah Anne Ward and Kevin Norris, came to the show and told me it was a waste of my time to be shooting anything else. I shot the third photograph of the series the next week. Ever since then I’ve been shooting with my girlfriend, Margaret LeJeune, around New York, Pennsylvania, and now Arkansas.

• Tell me about your influences and how they shaped your work? What is the key aspect of the work of these photographers that you find more influential to you: style, composition, career, aesthetics?

Michael Kenna, Gregory Crewdson, Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, and Simen Johan. Obviously Micheal Kenna for making beautiful images at night. Crewdson, ParkeHarrison, and Johan all make surreal images, some of which are quite beautiful as well. I know what my subjects are going to be, the most important aspect for my images is that they are beautiful, realistic, and at the same time at least somewhat surreal.

• What comes to you next? Are you lining for a career in fine art or in commercial photography or in both?

I know it’s difficult, maybe next to impossible, to make a living doing fine art, but that’s my goal right now. I apply to almost every juried show that accepts photography that I find, and with the recent news about the world photography awards shortlist, I’ve started applying directly to galleries and museums.

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