“Notations From Nature,” a show displaying the photographic art of Josh Jalbert, is now on display in the SU Gallery, upstairs in the Stevenson Union.
Jalbert, a former professor of photography at Southern Oregon University, uses a unique process in forming his art: Instead of using film in his camera, he uses paper.
“I wanted to lessen the degree to which my hands were involved,” said Jalbert. He went on to say the result is “the one-off image; the unique print. There are no negatives.”
Jalbert’s work could be mistaken for ink drawings. They are black and white, often sparse, and, in the case of “Bug-Eaten Holes in Leaves,” deal only with negative space.
“Human language only comes from our interaction with the modern landscape,” said Jalbert, referring to “Bug-Eaten Holes in Leaves,” which is a collection of exactly what it sounds like: the space left in leaves by bugs.
The results are engaging, ranging from shapes of easily recognizable objects, such as an apple or a shoe, to intricate, erratic designs.
Another display is titled “Sunlight on the Willamette River, Eugene, OR.” These 152 pieces result from Jalbert using brief shutter openings to catch only the sunlight on water, not the water itself. The pieces in “Sunlight” vary from sparse lines to dense, dark masses.
Resulting from perhaps Jalbert’s most interesting method of photography is “Light Tracing the Night Wind.” To produce these images, Jalbert loaded his camera with paper, laid it on the ground at night, tied a penlight to a tree branch, and left the camera’s shutter open for 10-15 minutes at a time, capturing the light’s movement in the wind.
The results are just as interesting as the process used to produce them. Again, the pieces differ greatly from one another, some being simple and some complex and dense.
“Notations From Nature” will be on display in the SU Gallery until April 28, when a closing reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m.
