Finding Something I Wasn't Looking For

Brunswick, Maine - I approached a welcoming group of hard-hatted workers building a bridge over the Androscoggin River and explained that for a project I needed an image to portray trade unions. “Do you have anything that represents unions on your hard hats?” They explained that they were not union members. Oops.

Shifting gears, I thought of The Vermont Center for Photography’s call for entries and asked if I could just photograph them at work. (Deadline is 12/31/25 if you want to submit.)  

We’re looking for images that grapple with the present: portraits about work, identity, and power; scenes at borders and in neighborhoods; landscapes marked by climate, extraction, or recovery; the built systems—water, housing, transit—that shape daily life; moments of protest and civic care; and conceptual work that questions evidence, authorship, or memory.

They all grabbed tools and pantomimed working.

Their boss, Tafarri Edwards, finished a phone call, joined the fun, and agreed to an impromptu portrait session.

I then headed upstream and walked across a pedestrian suspension bridge formerly used as a safe and convenient way for Topsham residents to get to work at the river-hugging Brunswick mills.

Love the way the swirling industrious ducks echo the motion of the tool-wielding workers.

I created this multiple exposure of shattered ice at the river’s frozen edge. When the image emerged on my camera’s screen, delight filled me as the creation evoked the multilayered abstractions of painter Kevin Xiques.  

Now I need to find a union shop.

John Nordell blogs about the creative process at johnnordell.com Instagram: @john.nordell

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On Finding Raw Material: Feeding My Multiple Exposure Practice

After a delightful dinner watching the world go by on a lovely spring evening from my front row seat on Newbury Street, I strolled around the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston.

The mysterious funk of this alley prompted me to retrieve my car-bound Nikon mirrorless camera. The view, devoid of nearby shiny modern buildings, felt pregnant with with old-time story and possibility.

Graphically complex scenes like this lure me to capture them with multiple exposures. I snap a frame to check exposure and start the mental calibration of how many exposures might look good.

Like a painter making a sketch before the squeezing paint, I capture a single image of the visual raw material to ready myself for multiple exposure show time.

Around the corner and down Boylston Street, the facade of Dick's House of Sport sported bands of color. I layered exposures of the strips, striving for a Piet Mondrian look and feel.

Satisfied with the above work, I after the fact captured the raw material.

Blaring sirens clued an approaching fire engine. I instinctively crouched down (safely between two parked cars), spun the dial for a slow shutter speed of 1.6 seconds and captured the blur of the passing light festooned vehicle. Hope all were safe.

These outdoor seating restaurant lights proved to be grist for my blending mill.

However, forgetting I had programmed in a slow shutter speed, when I turned my camera upside down for exposures four, five and six, I unintentionally and delightedly created dynamic blurs of light.

Earlier in my explorations, this epigraph that adorns The Boston Public Library's McKim building stopped me in my tracks.

THE COMMONWEALTH REQUIRES THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE AS THE SAFEGUARD OF ORDER AND LIBERTY 

Pondering cuts to education and the federally mandated narrowed scope of allowable classroom topics, I struggled to make the profound words legible in a single image.

I am not completely satisfied with this layering of library images as it feels repetitive and derivative of  prior work. However, perhaps it clearly represents struggle and dissatisfaction. Order and Liberty indeed.

John Nordell is a photographer, educator and curator. He blogs about the creative process at johnnordell.com Instagram: @john.nordell

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My Environmental Concerns Persist While My Modes of Photographic Expression Have Evolved

My submission for The Vermont Center for Photography Of Land and Place exhibition:

Selling Produce Next to a Superfund Site - 1989

In 1989 I traversed the United States documenting environmental degradation, from injection wells pumping toxic waste deep into the earth to farmers selling produce adjacent to Superfund sites. Chronicling the wounds intensified my concern for our planet. I commenced using a hazardous waste disposal company to remove spent chemicals from my darkroom instead of pouring them down the drain.

Walden Pond - 2019

Thirty years later I created large scale Zentangle drawings by walking deliberately through sand. I then sent a drone aloft to capture the ephemeral works that are only fully viewable from the sky. I piloted the drone from the shores of Walden Pond near Henry David Thoreau’s cabin where he wrote Walden.

Horizons - 2023

While digital photography comes with its own set of negative environmental impacts, discovering that I could intentionally create in-camera multiple exposures with the medium led to a new way of seeing. Whether capturing the interconnected nature of clam harvesters at low tide or utilizing the minimal elements of sea and sky to render the magnificence of the ocean, I overlay multiple views simultaneously to render the essence of subjects.

Ocean Aperture - 2024

Though the environmental concerns persist thirty-five years after my initial reporting, my modes of photographic expression have evolved.

Sea and Sky - 2024

Professor John Nordell teaches courses in the Arts, Media, and Design Program at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at johnnordell.com Instagram: john.nordell

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"Dynamic Legacy Ladder" Chosen for F-Stop Magazine's Group Exhibition on Color

So excited to be rubbing virtual shoulders with photographers from 33 countries as my image Dynamic Legacy Ladder was included in F-Stop Magazine's Color themed issue.

F-Stop Editor Christy Karpinski told me that there were probably 2500 images submitted from around 330 different photographers.

Dynamic Legacy Ladder

I strongly urge you to visit the exhibit and engage with the diverse approaches that employ a single medium to interpret the theme of color.  It is a honor to join this legion of creatives.

You can find my image if you scroll halfway down the exhibit.

View the Exhibit

I have been working on a series of digital in-camera multiple exposures since 2007.  See these Reality-Based Abstractions.

I broke new ground with Dynamic Legacy Ladder by choosing to make one exposure in color and the other in black and white.  This new direction can be traced directly to my recent collaborations with photographer Jaypix Belmer.  Big thanks to Jaypix for the inspiration!

Dynamic Legacy Ladder in F-Stop Magazine

Big thanks as well to F-Stop Magazine's Editor Christy Karpinski for providing a showcase that unifies humanity through art.

Professor John Nordell teaches courses in the Arts, Media, and Design Program at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com. Instagram: create.look.enjoy

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Morning Rises - Three of My Images Selected for "Visions of the Connecticut River" Exhibition

Visions of The Connecticut River Exhibition, May 7 - June 30, at The Great Falls Discovery Center, 2 Avenue A, Turners Falls, MA. Opening Reception: May 7, 2 - 4 pm

For me, a key aspect of meditation is returning.  Returning back to a focus on the breath when finding myself lost in thoughts.

The concept of returning is also important for me as a photographer.

Frosty Sunrise

One of my early mentors Rick Stafford taught me that if you discover an interesting scene to photograph, but the light is not right, you can always, well, return.

For years, before my teaching day started at Hallmark Institute of Photography, in Turners Falls, MA, I captured early morning scenes along the Connecticut River.

I shot the above image on a single digit degree morning.  Click for more details about the experience.

Like Butter (Sunrise Over the Connecticut River)

More images from the above morning here.

Now a professor at American International College, I assign my Digital Photography 2 students to photograph the same place at two different times of day to learn about how light and activity change in a single day.

Morning Meditation

Even dawn on foggy morning carries for me a sense of peace and calm.  I wonder how these cormorants are experiencing such a daybreak.

Return again.  And again.

Professor John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program that he created at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com and teaches online Zentangle drawing workshops.  

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Newspaper Profile: "Helping Us See With New Eyes", plus Autumn Exhibitions

The Montague Reporter chronicled my artistic life and teaching experiences. (After the clicking the link scroll down to page B1.) 

The report mentions upcoming exhibitions of my art as well as my December online Zentangle drawing workshops.

My double exposure using a film camera, Now and Then, is in a juried group show at The Lava Center, 324 Main St, Greenfield, MA 01301 On view: 11/5 - 12/17, Opening reception 11/5 11 am - 2 pm

Now and Then

Artist Statement: I shot film as an internationally travelled and published photojournalist in the 1980s and 1990s. As I shifted to teaching in the 2000s, standard camera gear shifted to digital. I discovered with my digital camera that I could purposefully create in-camera multiple exposures, layering images to abstract reality. In the late 2010s, I picked up film cameras again. Employing techniques refined using modern digital tech, I used old school tools in a new way. I currently teach visual and digital arts courses at American International College.

Speaking of digital in-camera multiple exposures, Sea, Sand, Sky, from my Reality-Based Abstraction series, will join the work of my teaching colleagues in the Massachusetts Art Education Association Members Exhibition at the Worcester Art Museum, Higgins Education Wing, 55 Salisbury St, Worcester, MA. Please use the entrance on Lancaster St (off Salisbury) On View, November 2, 2022 – December 2, 2022 Reception: Saturday, November 12 , 2022 from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.

Sea, Sand, Sky

Artist Statement for my Reality-Based Abstraction series:

This set of images evokes in me the excitement I felt 5 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.

 

I have been working on this series since 2007.

 

A print of Art Museum Columns resides in the collection of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program that he created at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com and teaches online Zentangle drawing workshops. Instagram: @john.nordell

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Patterns and Possibility - Reuse Before Recycling

Trash day and I hustled to flatten boxes and set out the bins before heading to teach at American International College.  The day before I had spontaneously decided to teach an introductory block print lesson to my History of Art class.

Trash Can Packing Box Trash

I had chosen a simple pattern to teach.  However, I fell in love with this gorgeous cardboard nest for my recently purchased cylindrical trash can.

Patterned Seat

Within hours of this discovery, I had deconstructed the pattern into elemental shapes and taught a one hour introduction to block printing.  As I Certified Zentangle Teacher, I am familiar with this process of noticing patterns in the world and then teaching workshop participants how to draw them.

The Prof's Show and Tell

As students printed their carved blocks, I inked the bottom of the cardboard packaging and pushed it down on paper.

Not a Deep Impression

After this first iteration, I refined my creative process by applying more ink...

Packaging Totem

... and this time pressing the paper down onto the upturned inked cardboard.

That's What I am Talking About

Here are some results from students:

A Complement to Looking at Art

A novice printer "accidentally" moved his block while printing, laying down two slightly offset impressions, creating this lovely, energized offering.  Where would we be without mistakes?

Only Way to Learn is to Live (Chapter Title from The Midnight Library)

John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program that he created at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com 

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Vacation + New Surroundings = A Light Camera

At times, the camera seems heavy.  However, on vacation, staying at the TownePlace Suites astride the Chelsea Creek in Chelsea, MA, I headed out in pre-sunrise frigid temperatures, delighting in a fresh and photogenic environment.  A formula: vacation + new surroundings = a light camera 

Drawbridge

Famed photographer Jay Maisel, speaking at Hallmark Institute of Photography where I used to teach, opined:  Everyone says the light is incredible in Florence.  It's not that the light is any different.  It's just that when you are on vacation and not thinking about your mortgage or job, the light is amazing. 

Angular Glow

I loved the way The Chelsea Street Bridge changed before my eyes as the sun crested the across-the-creek East Boston triple deckers, light going from flat to angular.  Working on the in-camera multiple exposure below to accentuate color and shape, the tones and shards evoked the paintings of famed Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas.  I pulled up Douglas' The Judgement Day for reference.

Homage to Aaron Douglas

Later in the morning I sat with another famed photographer Lou Jones, in his East Boston studio.  He got a kick out of Maisel's Florence and light story.  Don't miss Jones' panAfricaproject: "Redefining the Modern Image of Africa".  Jones is off to Kenya next month.

The trick is to bring the same curiosity and wonder to photography even when at home thinking about the job and mortgage.  May my camera be light.

John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program that he created at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com 

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Redefining Boundaries: Shedding the Parenthesis of Normal Existence

Usually held at Community Yoga in Greenfield, MA, Alexander Technique teacher Lisa Harvey guided us via the Zoom portal to slow down and notice how we use our bodies.

Explaining how it is possible to become one with a tool by extending our nervous system beyond typical and limited boundaries, Lisa set us free to explore the concept.  I immediately went for my camera.  On this website's About page, the first line of text states, "I love the feel of a camera in my hand."

Eco-Friendly Packing Material

I prowled around my house for a few minutes seeking light and to merge mind, body and spirit with camera.  

Multiple Exposure of the Packing Material

Amazingly and wonderfully, for her exploration, pianist classmate Julia played a Beethoven sonata, providing a lyrical and emotive soundtrack.

Spice it Up

Minutes later we reconvened in our Zoom squares.  Amanda shared the revelatory nature of the experience as she was able to break through her trepidation of singing into a microphone.  

Intentionally and Specifically Out of Focus

Lisa encouraged us to redefine boundaries, to shed the parenthesis of our normal existence.  Look forward to our next out of this world class!

John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com  Instagram: @john.nordell

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A Beach in Winter - Probing for Essence

Sand whipped off the beach at Sandy Point Reservation at the tip of Plum Island in Ipswich, MA.  The brilliant blustery January day enlivened my mind, body and creative spirit.

Surf's Up

Listening to my gut brain in post production, these two photos beckoned to be joined in a diptych.

Taking Off

With my Reality-Based Abstractions, I often take a "sketch" photo before combining multiple exposures to capture a multilayered view of reality, a process akin to a painter drawing before getting out the oils.  With the sketch, I check exposure and lighting conditions.

Sketch - Better Than the Final

With the image above, I wanted to show a lost lobster trap in situ, before treating it with multiple exposures.  However, in this case, I like the sketch better than the final product.

Vision Not Realized

Waiting for liftoff: I stalked this bird as it poked around barnacled rocks exposed by the tide.

Homage to Koudelka

Driving to the beach I had listened to Jaymi Heimbuch's podcast on 6 Surprising Resolutions for Conservation Photographers. She extolled the importance of capturing a moment that evokes an emotional response in a viewer over perfectionist technical striving.  Her idea emboldened me to try my hand at bird photography.

John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com  Instagram: @john.nordell

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The Power and Importance of Traditional Strengths in Non-Traditional Times

At the start of the semester in my Cultivating Creativity class, I ask students to note three of their top character strengths from the VIA Institute on Character's listing of strengths.  The idea is to start the semester with confidence in one's abilities.  I invite you identify some of your key strengths.  Click here for the list.  

I kept walking past my camera bag thinking, "I really should take some pictures."  Distracted by the impact of Covid-19 on my life, and learning how to shift my face-to-face courses to online delivery, my camera remained untouched.

This Sketch Became... 

Finally, I grabbed it and started shooting.

X-Ray Vision

It felt so good to take pictures.  This process has been a love of mine for nearly 5 decades.

This Sketch Became... 

Preparing to take a multiple exposure, I take a single frame to test for exposure, like an artist's sketch.

Raw File

The layered images that emerge from my digital camera are flat looking, so I treat the files to pull out vibrancy and details.  In the case below, I reversed the above image to look like it was a color negative.

Home

A mere ten minutes of shooting opened my heart and mind to a present moment of peace.  I printed the images out and put them in my kitchen.  Each time I walk by and see them, I smile.  In the face of current uncertainty, feeling competent and creative helps me feel a sense of needed normality.

John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com   

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