James B. Abbott

James B. Abbott - Photography


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Bridge Works Series
Bridge Works, Constructed Photographs of the Ben Franklin Bridge
1. Untitled, Camden Tower at night, 2001, Iris print mounted on museum board,
     32" x 36"
2. Untitled, Ben Franklin Bridge Walkway, 2002, toned gelatin silver prints mounted on      museum board, three 16" x 20" prints
3. Untitled, Ben Franklin Bridge Camden side/Camden ower, 2001, toned gelatin silver      prints on museum board, four 19" x 24" prints
4. Untitled, Ben Franklin Bridge Shadow, 2002, toned gelatin silver prints, three
      19" x 24" prints
5. Untitled, Ben Franklin Bridge from Water and Race street, 2001, Iris print mounted on      museum board, 31" x 38"
6. Untitled, Under Philadelphia side of Ben Franklin Bridge, 2001, toned gelatin silver      prints, four 16" x 20" prints


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Bridge Interiors Series
Interiors of Ben Franklin Bridge
1. Anchorage Lobby at Race Street, 2000, Ilforchrome print, 20" x 24"
2. Anchorage Lobby Ceiling, 2000, Ilforchromeprint, 20" x 24"
3. Anchorage Bridge Cable Bend, 2000, Ilforchrome, 20" x 24"
4. Winged Victories in Bridge Plaza, 1998, Ilforchrome print, 20" x 24"


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Portraits Series
1. Bea and Eleanor, 2002, gelatin silver print, 8" x 10"
2. Charlotte, 1999, gelatin silver print, 8" x 10"
3. Clara, 2000, gelatin silver print, 8" x 10"
4. Eleanor, 2002, gelatin silver print, 8" x 10"
5. Bea, Charlotte, and Eleanor, 2001, gelatin silver print,
8" x 10"


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Berlin Series
1. 10/1988 Bradenburg Gate, Ilfordchrome print, 16" x 16"
2. 10/1998 Storefront (West Berlin), Ilfordchrome print,      16" x 16"
3. 10/1988 Bernauer Strasse, Ilfordchrome print,
      16" x 16"
4. 11/1990 Former Border (Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse),      Ilfordchrome print, 10" x 20"
5. 11/1989 Wall Opening (Potsdmer Platz), Ilfordchrome      print, 16" x 16"


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Cape Cod/Wellfleet Series
Cape Cod National Seashore Panoramics
1. Dune Path, 2003, gelatin silver prints, 20" x 48"
2. Dune Ruins, 2003, gelatin silver prints, 10" x 24"
3. Dune Shack in Fog, 2003, gelatin silver prints, 16" x 60"
4. Margo/Gleb Shack Windows, 2003, gelatin silver prints, 20" x 32"
5. Dune Shoreline, 2003, gelatin silver prints, 8" x 30"

Wellfleet Cape Cod Panoramics
6. South Wellfleet, 2000, gelatin silver prints, 20" x 64"
7. Point Pleasant Landing, 2000, gelatin silver prints,
20" x 48"
8. Marconi Station Dunes, 2002, gelatin silver prints,
14" x 33"
9. Cottage Porch, 2002, gelatin silver prints, 14" x 33"

Artist Statement
This cross section of images is from an ongoing body of work which I started six years ago while on a family vacation in South Wellfleet, Massachuetts. Returning each year to the same modest bayside cottage, I dealt mostly with the landscape within walking distance of the cottage. I became increasingly sensitive to the effects and changes of the tides, light, and season. In anticipation of them, I would attempt to incorporate them into the constructed panoramics.

Aware of and frustrated by the disadvantage of working only a few weeks of the year in this environment, I applied to a program managed by the Outer Cape Artist- in- Residence Consortium. Through volunteers, the organization facilitates artists spending two weeks in a primitive historic dune shack (no electricity, no running water). Its location 400 feet from the ocean, isolated in the Peaked Hill dunes of the Cape Cod National Seashore, assures maximum prospects for concentration and immersion in the landscape.

This opportunity placed me in the epicenter of an extraordinary environment minus distractions, but with the solitude to think and a mandate to create. This was an extremely productive time which I regard as a gift.

With an increased knowledge and appreciation of this place and the impact of weather and season, the work took on its own direction and increased momentum. I have returned independently five times since my May 2003 residency, most recently in January, March, and May of 2004.

Geologically, the Outer Cape is not very old, but represents a monolithic sand and clay formation created by glaciers and tattooed by humans thirty miles off the rocky mainland coast of Massachuetts. The ever shifting sand dunes act as a three dimensional model and record of the primary forces and rhythmn of nature. The landscape of sand seems to overtly record everything from the most minute shift of wind and tide to catastrophic force. At the most basic level photographically, I make two-dimensional interpations of this highly transitory three- dimensional recording of natural and inflicted change.

The vocabulary of this landscape reflects permanence and mutability: where sea meets sky and land, where human intervention imprints the environment, and where the sky, sea and land often blend and/or mirror each other. The effects of currents of air are as evident as those of the sea in this landscape.

I work on site with a large format camera and Polaroid 4x5 positive/ negative film. The instant on-site print is in effect a sketching and constructing tool and allows me to combine and investigate the possibilities to form a final panoramic image; this often takes several attempts and more than one visit. The 4x5 camera with its shift, rise and perspective controls allows for the advanced and nuanced composition of each image. The multiple [2-6 frames] image approach to the panoramic allows me to play and reconstruct the information like a musical score, introducing a rhythm into its final form. Much of the work includes both a micro and macro view or layer of information. I find it difficult to sacrifice one for the other and I prefer to exploit the inherent descriptive nature of the photographic medium. My goal is that the work will deal not only with how one perceives a place or thing but how one thinks of that place after encountering a visual representation of it.

About James B. Abbott

Contact Information
Exhibit 231
231 N. Third Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
tel: 215-925-7576
e-mail: exhibit231@att.net
www.jbabbott.com
Please contact artist for purchases, commissions, etc.

Education
1980
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
BFA Photography

1977
Penland School of Crafts Penland, NC
Photographic Workshop CORE Scholarship Student

1975
Biscayne College, Miami, FL
Undergraduate Liberal Arts Studies

1984-1985
Apprentice/Assistant to photographer Burk Uzzle

Grants
2002
SOS Grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts

2001
Visual Arts Fellowship Pennsylvania Council on the Arts

1983
Visual Arts Fellowship Pennsylvania Council on the Arts

Residency
2003
Outer Cape Artist in Residence, Cape Cod National Seashore Dune Shack Residency

Professional Experience
1985-Present
Freelance Photographer - National and International Experience:
Principal clients graphic designers, architects, landscape architects, universities, museums, and corporations.

2003-2004
Senior Lecturer/Professor- adjunct, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

1993
Adjunct Professor, Photography, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA

1985
Workshop Instructor for Photography and Collage/ Design sessions, co-taught w/designer Jane Kosstrin of Doublespace Design at Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC

1983
Gallery Director, Burden Gallery, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY

1982
Photographer, Medical and Audio Visual, Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, PA

1981
Art Reproduction Photographer, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Steiglitz Center, Dept. of Prints and Photographs

1977
Intern, Light Gallery, New York, NY

Selected Lectures
2002
Gallery Talk and Tour - Rutgers/Camden Stedman Gallery Show, Suspended in Time: The Ben Franklin Bridge

2001
Photosession 2001 at the Print Center, a day long forum on photography

University of the Arts, Philadelphia - photography class guest lecture

2000
Regional SPE Conference on Urbanism and Photography

Permanent Collections
Allentown Museum of Art
Cranbrook Museum of Art

Selected Commissions
2004
Creating Sacred Places
Transcultural Initiative Project for Rutgers University and NJN Public TV, site photography for exhibition, web, CD, catalog

2000-2001
Landscape architecture photography for Olin Partnership, Philadelphia, PA: American Academy in Rome; Bryant Park and Wagner Park, New York, NY; National Gallery Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC

2000
New. Land. Marks. site photographs for Fairmount Park Art Association show and book at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

1998
Philadelphia Underground, photographer for Philadelphia Magazine feature, text by Mark Bernstein

Selected Exhibitions

Solo

2004
Bridge Works, St. Josephs University, Philadelphia, PA

2002
Bridge Works Constructed Photographs of the Ben Franklin Bridge, Exhibit 231 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2000
The Bridge on the Horizon Show, Exhibit 231 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Sightlines; Berlin, 1988-1992 Photographs by James B. Abbott, Exhibit 231 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Curator: Carl Toth

1994
Jim Abbott: Berlin, 1988-1992, Allentown Museum of Art, Allentown, PA

1987
Bridge Series Work, Harvard University, Gunn Gallery, Cambridge, MA

Group

2004
Print Center 78th Annual Photography Competition, The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA

Photography Now, South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA

2003
63rd Annual Juried Exhibition, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA

2002
Suspended in Time:The Ben Franklin Bridge, Rutgers Center for the Arts/ Stedman Gallery, Camden NJ

2001
New•Land•Marks, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Exhibition and Catalog, commissioned by Fairmount Park Art Association

Take 5 on the American Landscape, group show of Photosession 2001 speakers at the Nexus Foundation for Today's Art Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1992
Twenty-twenty Vision, Cranbrook Museum of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI

1991
Pennsylvania Photographers, Allentown Museum of Art, Allentown, PA
Juried

1989
150 Years of Photography in Philadelphia, organized by the Atwater Kent Museum for Museo Bardini, Florence, Italy

Exhibitions Organized and Curated

2002
Sandy Sorlien Photographs from Fifty Houses:Images from the American Road, Exhibit 231 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
One person exhibition and book signing

2001
Geanna Merola; Poetic Transmissions: hand altered photographs, Exhibit 231 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

John Geard, System and Chaos, Paperworks and Artist Books, Exhibit 231 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Show and lectures part of PPC

Joel Katz: Paris Dreamwalk, Photographic Assemblages, Exhibit 231 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2000
Carl Toth; Photo-Montages 1970-2000, The Eye Evolves, Exhibit 231 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

The Bridge on the Horizon Show, Exhibit 231 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Ongoing Projects
2003
Panoramic Multi-Imaged B&W in Cape Cod, MA and the Ben Franklin Bridge, Philadelphia, PA

B&W portraits of my daughters in summer

B&W still lifes for Tendenze Design

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