Z cyklu „Cronopios”


Jeff McConnell

Annandale

Stany Zjednoczone – USA



Jeff McConnell is an artist working with pinhole and alternative process photography in New Jersey, USA. He received an MFA in Photography from the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, in 2000. He has been making images with self-made cameras for about 20 years.

Solo exhibitions:
2019: Fibers of Eternity, Jeff McConnell and Diana Pankova, [zamma], Remshalden, Germany, Sept. 15 - Nov.15
Awakenings, Antigua Estación del Ferrocarril de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, May 2 - June 30
2018: Cronopios, Photo Patagonia festival, Sala Futura, Río Gallegos, Argentina, Sept 23 - Oct 27
I’ll Follow the Sun, Whittemore CCC, Oldwick, NJ, May 4 - June 8
Cronopios, Galería Ramón Alva de la Canal, Xalapa, Ver. Mexico, Jan 24 - Feb 28
2017: A través del estenopo, Centro de las Artes de San Augustin, Oaxaca, Mexico, April 30 - May 26
Street Life, Pinhole Coffee, San Francisco, CA, April 21 - June 20
2014: Pinhole Photographs, Harvest Café, High Bridge, NJ, Oct 11 - Nov 14
2013: Pinhole Photographs, Electric Moustache Gallery, Winston Salem, NC, Sept 7 - Oct 4

Selected group exhibitions:
2020: SOLAR TRAILS and TRACES. Solargraphs and analemmas, online, Espaço f at the UFMG School of Fine Arts, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, September
Pavlovka Pinhole Fest, Hetmans Museum, Kiev, Ukraine, August 28 – Sept 20
Exposición Internacional de Fotografía Estenopeica, F8 fotogallery, Biblioteca Pública Héctor González Mejía, Medellin, Colombia, August
Brzeski Festiwal Fotografii Otworkowej, Brzeg, Poland, May
[ESTENOTOPIAS_2020] Curator: Jorge A. Olave Riveros, Valparaíso, Chile, May
Una Mirada Estenopeica, online publication by Chicali Pinholero, Mexicali, México, April
El Festival de Pinhole - Perú, Lima, Perú, April
3ra Exposición Virtual Colectiva Internacional de Imagen Estenopeica y solarigrafía, Morelia, Mexico, April
Pinhole photography exhibition, Rosfoto, St. Petersburg, Russia, April
2019: OFFO - Ogólnopolski Festiwal Fotografii Otworkowej, Galeria Acartus, Jastrzêbie-Zdrój, Poland, Oct.25 – Nov.30
Photo Kyiv Fair 2019, Pavlovka, Kyiv Municipal Art Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine, Sept 26-29
20 anos de GAMA Fotografía, La casa de Nadie, Xalapa, Mexico, May 23 - August 2
The Art of Pinhole Photography, OFF//FOTO Festival, Heidelberg, Ger., Apr 25 - May 5
2018: Vagón de estenopos, Museo Infantil de Oaxaca, Mexico, April 14-28
Pavlovka Pinhole Fest, Pavlovka Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine, Feb 23 - March 1
2017: Alternative Process exhibition, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC, May 5-28
The f/D Book of Pinhole, Subjective Press, Medina OH
Street Life, Photo Patagonia Festival, Complejo Cultural SC, Río Gallegos, Arg., Apr 13-16
2016: SOLAR 16, Museo in Los Cerros, Quebrada de Huichaira, Argentina, October 2016
The Art of Pinhole Photography, OFF//FOTO Festival, Heidelberg, Ger., Oct 12 - Nov 6
2015: Multiples Miradas, Museo Fotografico Simik, Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 2015
Solar Argentina 2015, Buenos Aires, Argentina, September 2015
Pinhole Photography, Don’t Take Pictures, online, May 2014
2013: Lenzless, Plates to Pixels, Portland, OR, November 2013; catalogue published

Education:
MFA, Photography. Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, PA, 2000


„Cronopios”


The work that became „Cronopios” came after some attempts at street photography with a pinhole camera. I liked what I got, and became interested in the idea of catching a single figure in space, isolating a person. How would it work?
I made a camera which could be called „telephoto pinhole” – 300 mm from the aperture to the film, with a relatively large pinhole (f150) for fast exposures. I had always used a tripod for pinhole before, but I noticed a transformation when my camera was released from its solid perch, and allowed to move with the world around. Those beings that passed by, gave their energy through the tiny hole to my film, and what was left there was both them, and not them.
There was something else…
Looking at the contact sheets, I was reminded of some parables by the great Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, stories of characters he called „Cronopios”, who wander through life captured by the wonder of it all, and so I borrowed his name for these characters on film. Using simple cameras without lenses always invites magic, and can slip us from our time and into a dream.

Jeff McConnell lives in New Jersey, USA, and found alternative photography when there was no camera of a kind to make the pictures he imagined. He graduated from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 2000, has been exploring photography without lenses ever since, and has also shown work and given workshops in numerous countries.

Website:
http://www.jeffmcconnell.net/