John Nordell: Evolution - From Photojournalism to Abstraction

On view at the Greenfield Public Library, Community Meeting Room, through January 31, 2025.

Library Hours: Mon-Wed 9:30am-8pm, Thu-Fri 9:30am-5pm, Sat 9:30am-2pm

412 Main Street, Greenfield, MA 01301 (413) 772-1544

Closing Reception with the Artist January 31, 2026

9:00 am - 1:00 pm

Deciding that the time had come to share what I knew about image making, I joined the faculty at Hallmark Institute of Photography in 2006. This professional shift came after 20 plus years of professional photography experience, primarily working as a photojournalist.

With no editors handing me assignments, I wondered, “What am I going to photograph?” However, after a few months of working with enthusiastic students, creative colleagues and visiting artists, the question became, “How am I going to photograph?”

Even the shift in questions highlights the shift in my process. Clear rules mark the photojournalist’s trade: do not alter a scene to deceive your readers, do not manipulate subjects, and come back with objective goods. Thus, no question aside from “what” to photograph initially occurred to me.

I invite you to join me on my evolutionary journey as I experiment with “how” to photograph. (More details on my photojournalism career here.)

Entire show presented below. Click on any image to enlarge.

Partial gallery view. Prints in 26 X 20 inch frames. $475 each, editions of five.

Run-D.M.C., U.S. Rock Magazine, 1985

After covering Boston’s local hip-hop scene for Boston Rock Magazine, I earned the opportunity to photograph and interview Run-D.M.C. in New York City.

Tradition and Change at War in South Korea, U.S. News & World Report, 1989

Addictive Personalities - Kitty Dukakis, Newsweek Magazine, 1989

As students protesting the dictatorship tried to march off their campus they threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at the rows of riot police blocking their way. Police responded with barrages of tear gas. After an errant rock slammed into my shin, causing blood to flow, I retreated into a small concrete structure. One view from my shelter looked down on a side alley and I captured this image. Regarding the image’s emotional impact, John Echave, my photo editor exclaimed, “You single handedly scooped Time and Newsweek.”

During the 1988 presidential campaign, I spent a couple of days on assignment with Kitty Dukakis, wife of democratic candidate Michael Dukakis. I had exclusive access to her as she flew across New Hampshire to campaign rallies. On the small jet, I could take pictures of her at any time, as long as she was not smoking. However, on the plane, she chain-smoked. I finally asked the press aide if Dukakis could stop smoking so I could capture the intimate, exclusive pictures I was promised. Cigarette finally snuffed out; I asked her to look out the window with a thoughtful gaze. After her husband’s unsuccessful campaign, her addiction issues became public, and my image from the campaign trail had captured her struggle.

Underground Arts Scene and Emerging Capitalism, VSD Magazine (France), 1989

I spent six weeks in 1988 on a tourist visa documenting the arts underground and emerging capitalism in the Soviet Union. My reportage was published in a French magazine. The headline translates to, “Like a Whiff of the American Dream.” You can see children playing video games, new age acolytes, mohawked punks, long haired hippies, and young folks turning their apartments into discos or rock venues. To document the repressed gay community in Moscow, Serioza pulled aside a carpet on his kitchen floor and lifted up the trap door that led to basement stairs and a safe space where he could put on stage clothes, sing, and relax amongst friends.

One State’s Homeless Crisis, in Plain View, The Christian Science Monitor Newspaper, 2005

A report noting that homeless people were sleeping on church floors led me to document the crisis and efforts to help unhoused individuals in Providence, RI.

A Farm Where ‘Small is Beautiful”, The Christian Science Monitor Newspaper, 2005

I met Atlas Farm owner Gideon Porth at a farmers’ market in Boston. At the time, my family contemplated moving to Western Massachusetts, near his farm. Wanting to learn more about our possible new environment, I proposed to my editor that I shoot a “rural farm to urban farmers’ market” photo essay. Aided greatly by realtor Mike Packard, a referral from Gideon, we ended up moving near Atlas Farm and have greatly enjoyed the delicious produce.

Sunrise from the Ridge, 2007

Near Poet’s Seat Tower, Greenfield, MA

Teaching full-time and freed from the dictates of assignment editors, at first I wondered, “What am I going to photograph?” However, as I found myself experimenting with techniques, the question became, “How am I going to photograph?”

Christmas in April, 2007

Brattleboro, VT

Just shooting for myself, without thought of commerce, my explorations continued and deepened.

Muggy Midtown Manhattan, 2007

View from a Circle Line boat on the Hudson River, NY

As it happened, Phyllis Giarnese, a stock photography industry veteran working at Photolibrary, became interested in my explorations. She refers to photographers as “artists.” I began seeing myself in this way.

Stop Sign Shadow, 2007

Longwood Medical Area, Boston, MA

To shoot this clean shadow, I moved a creeping plant out of the frame. After years of adhering to the photojournalistic code of not altering a scene, this “radical” act constituted a breakthrough.

Dancing Moon, 2007

Shot in my driveway, Greenfield, MA

I captured this abstraction of the moon by keeping the shutter open for 2.5 seconds while jumping up and down. Several days prior to making this image, I had come across a performance project video by Papo Colo in which he literally jumps over a series of fences to demonstrate the unfettered physical and intellectual freedom available to artists.

Chelsea, New York, 2007

View from the window of a multistory gallery building.

One of my teaching colleagues David Frazier developed an assignment for students to photographically recreate a painting. On a field trip to the Williams College Museum of Art, a student and I looked at the German modernist painter Lyonel Feininger’s “Mill in Autumn” and debated how to recreate it with a camera. To this end, I discovered that my digital camera had a feature that allowed for in-camera multiple exposures.

Stairwell, 2007

At the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

In an attempt to create an effect like the multiple planes of Cubist paintings, I began layering exposures on top of one another.

Snow Steps, 2008

Turners Falls, MA

Stock photo editor Giarnese encouraged me to add human narrative to my images. I also read an article about the elaborate sets and created realities of photographer Jeff Wall’s work. Seeing this beautiful snow scene, I carefully made footprints before shooting.

Orange Field, 2008

Shot in my kitchen, Greenfield, MA

A few days after attending colleague Peter Chilton’s 20th century art survey class, I took this picture without a lens on the camera. A color field photograph, perhaps?

Water Bottle Lens, 2008

Shot in my kitchen, Greenfield, MA

Moments later, I used a water bottle for a lens.

Reconsidering Mt Rushmore, 2008

Captured in three different galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

I derive great joy from looking at art and making art at the same time. I created this image at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Airport, 2008

Bradley International Airport, Windsor Locks, CT

In the process of courting and then signing a contract with corporate art provider Grand Image, Anglea Bizzari, the outfit’s art acquisitions manager, encouraged me to shift my work to read less digital, less photographic. At the PhotoPlus Expo in New York, I found some software to move my imagery in this painterly direction.

Cycles of Life, 2008

By the Connecticut River, Turners Falls, MA

Along with the many others who have mentored me, I cannot thank Ms. Bizzari enough for her enthusiastic and critical support.

Branch Embrace, 2008

By the Connecticut River, Turners Falls, MA

as I set forth / into the day / the birds sing / with new voices / and I listen / with new ears / and give thanks - A verse from “Awakening” by Harriet Kofalk. Sometimes I affirm to myself, “May I see with new eyes.” Or, “May I see with new ears.”

Farm Gears, 2008

Machinery at Upinngil Farm, Gill, MA

Big thanks to Cliff Hatch and Sorrel Hatch at Upinngil Farm for supporting my creative efforts.

As the image combining occurs inside my camera, the spirit of my art is photographic, rather than digital manipulation. In the computer, however, I treat the images to accentuate the details.

Art Museum Columns, 2009

Museum of Fine arts, Boston

I strive to paint a clearer picture of actual experience with these layered, concurrent views.

Sometimes I remove or enhance color.

Artist Statement - Reality-Based Abstraction

This set of images evokes in me the excitement I felt decades ago watching my first photographs emerge in a developing tray. Today I eagerly watch the screen on the back of my digital camera as the machine develops a series of exposures into these multilayered offerings. As the image combining occurs in-camera, the spirit of my art is photographic rather than digital.

The raw files that emerge, however, are flat and gray looking, so I use a computer darkroom to reveal rich detail, texture and color.

The art of the Cubist painters shimmers with life. These painters have inspired me to utilize multiple views simultaneously to portray the essence of a subject.

Engaging light and graphic beauty draw me to subject matter, which usually relates to the constructed environment.

The “zzt” sound of the camera’s shutter encourages me. I joyfully bend, stretch and strain while photographing. Heart, technology and technique combine to reflect the overlapping planes in which I see the world these days.