J. John Priola: Natural Light

photography monograph for J. John Priola / Kehrer Verlag

introduction by Claire Daigle; essay by Rita Bullwinkel; interview by Alec Soth

From the introduction by Claire Daigle:
J. John Priola’s Natural Light is shadowed by the passing genre of American pastoral—overrun by weeds and gone to seed. A stubborn copse of trees is all that’s left of the hardscrabble grace of hands working the land. These photographs took root in Colorado farmland. The artist’s mother, an amateur horticulturist, nurtured the images alongside her prized marigolds, dahlias and gladiolas. The tug of home announces itself in the faded, greenish-yellow tinge specific to aging Polaroids. A small figure is just visible in one snapshot: a boy on a breezeway, bolting.

From the publisher:
J.John Priola’s second monograph features work from twelve different series made over twenty years time and investigates the natural and un-natural world. There is a beauty and perversity at work in this collection of images. Plants carry stories and offer information about their caretakers, perseverance, and what nature and nurture hold. The images are often portraits and evidence of what was and can no longer be seen. Photography is magic in this way, deceptively acting as a document, yet personal, seen but beyond reach. While there are different formal approaches to image making, the aspirations remain the same. Following the title Natural Light, all images—even seemly studio set ups—are done with natural light, and are in color and black and white. Shifts in scale and layout show the diverse ways to look at our world and how we live in it.

142 pages
9 x 11.25 inches