I’ve just learned that my photograph, Untitled (file 264),” from my series, “Black Mountain,” was selected as a Chosen Winner for the American Photography 40 publication. This is an incredible honor! Of over 7000 entries, the judges chose my work to publish online alongside 230 other artists. Stay tuned for links when the galleries are live!
MTCC Student Show Spring 2024
I’m super proud and inspired by the students I have the opportunity to work with in my role as lead instructor at McDowell Tech. Recently,we displayed 20 of their photographs at MACA’s gallery on Main St. in Marion. Thanks to a wonderful partnership with the McDowell Arts Council, MTCC graphics and photo students exhibit their work in the gallery once a year in Spring. Opening night was truly uplifting! I was so happy to share this experience with so many wonderful people!
Thank you to everyone who made this a success! Read more in the article published in the McDowell News:
Images:
LEFT: Falon Renee Cornett standing near her photos and a photo of the printed McDowell News her work was featured in! copied from Falon's FB page Falon Renee Photography Top Right: Me, Rose Jerome, current MTCC photo program coordinator and my little fashionista who sang "Let it Go" for us during an intermission standing in front of Mike Distler and Art Webster's photos Top Middle: We were stoked Blake Madden stopped by with his dog, seen here hanging with Jay Perry who did the hard part putting all these perfectly spaced nails in the walls! Bottom Right: Mike Mauney, a former LIFE magazine photographer and photojournalist came by! We can't wait to see the photos he made. We also get a sneak peek of Michael Lavender who wrote the wonderful article featured in the McDowell News! Thank you everyone for showing up and supporting this student show we love what we do and I'm so proud of all the students! Rose
Create! Magazine #38
My work was recently published in the current issue of Create! Magazine Issue #38
“No matter where you live or where you’re from, summer brings back specific memories. It has its own pace, its own vibe, and often its own playlist. For many, it means getting some much-needed time in the sun, while for others, it means finally having a moment to relax. In this issue, we are exploring all things summer through the lens of art. Think vivid, bright colors and beachside scenes; think frozen yogurt stands and cityscapes at dusk. The artists in this issue are bringing us long, endless days, warm ocean waves, and plenty of summer joy—and we are here for it.” -Christina Nafziger & the Create! Team
My work is in the curated section alongside so many wonderful artists selected by guest curator Maria Brito, an award-winning New York-based contemporary art adviser, entrepreneur, author, and curator. Flip through and see artists from around the world who really caught Maria Brito’s eye!
Sadly, my interview was turned in late (my fault) and I missed the print deadline. Unfortunately, the email with the questions went to my spam folder and I completely missed out on a wonderful opportunity to share unique details about my work for the Create! audience.
Copies may be purchased at: https://www.createmagazine.com/blog/issue-38
Thank you Michael Lavendar at MTCC for this lovely introduction
MTCC’s Director of Communications released this press release introducing me to my colleagues and the community today. It’s beautifully written and I’m so pleased to be a part of this school! Looking forward to this semester and to the future of photography at MTCC! The article is on the school’s website at: https://mcdowelltech.edu/new-mtcc-photography-instructor-at-forefront-of-art-and-technology/
Our very talented student, Zach Morgan, made the photos and he did a great job as always!
Lead Instructor and Program Coordinator for McDowell Tech's Photography Program
I am extremely pleased to announce that I have been hired as the new Lead Instructor and Program Coordinator for McDowell Technical Community College’s Photography Program. MTCC is located in Marion, NC.
I am proud to follow in Blake Madden’s footsteps and am so grateful to him for bringing me on as a adjunct in 2021. I wish him the best in his retirement.
I love the people and the program at MTCC and look forward to the ways that we will continue to grow this program during this unique time in the history of photography.
MTCC is located in Western NC. The campus is lovely and inviting, nestled amongst the surrounding mountain ranges. Image sourced from: https://www.glassdoor.com/Photos/McDowell-Technical-Community-College-Office-Photos-IMG537072.htm
“The Photographic Technology program prepares both future imaging professionals and amateurs alike to become more technically proficient with their cameras and lighting equipment and more creative with their picture taking skills. You can earn an associate degree, certificate, or just take classes.”
To learn more about MTCC and the photography program, visit: https://mcdowelltech.edu/academic-degree-programs/photographic-technology/
Honorable Mention
I’m very grateful to have received and honorable mention from the curators of “Diptych-Open Theme” that opened at Praxis Gallery earlier this week.
The entire show is excellent and can be seen here: https://www.praxisphotocenter.org/praxis-gallery?lightbox=dataItem-lggxmdnm8
The screenshot from my work is below and is from my series “Black Mountain" I call this pairing, “The Fall of Man”
Much of this series examines the cycle of life and uses the apple in a Biblical metaphor exploring good and evil, knowledge and power, life and destruction.
Two Exhibitions in April 2023
I am so thrilled to be a part of two group shows this month and am delighted to be able to attend one of the openings.
One of my photos, “Rotten Apple,” (featured in the dipytch below,) from my series “Black Mountain,” will be featured in “Valley Viewpoints” at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.
The work has the namesake of this town so I love the connections that are being made.
BMCA’s Valley Viewpoints gallery show is an exhibition featuring a selection of curated works by local artists living in Black Mountain.
The opening reception will be held on Friday, April 28th from 5:00-6:30 and the work will be on view for the month of May. Because this is a local show, I am excited to attend this opening and meet many local artists. Additionally, my step-dad, who is a talented photographer and painter, has a painting in the show!
info@blackmountainarts.org
828.669.0930 / / Monday – Friday 10am – 5pm
225 W State St, Black Mountain, NC 28711, USA
©Rose Wind Jerome
Additionally a diptych from my series “Black Mountain” will be on view at Praxis Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota! My entire series was intended to be presented in diptychs, so I love that the work is included in a show celebrating the pairings of many images from a talented group of artists!
DIPTYCH ~ OPEN THEME
Curated By: Praxis Directors
Opening Night Reception:
Saturday, April 15TH from 6-8PM CST
2637 27th Ave S. Minneapolis, MN 55406 • Free, Secure Off-Street Parking
Praxis Gallery | Photo Arts Center is Located at the NW corner of The Ivy Arts Block. Enter Parking Lot. Our Main Entrance is to the left as you enter the parking lot.
Exhibition Dates: April 15TH – 29TH, 2023
WE the Women's Caucus: Searching for Life: Regrowth and Display
I am absolutely honored to announce that I have been invited to exhibit in the WE the Women's Caucus 2022 exhibition “Searching for Life: Regrowth and Display” juried by Deborah Bright
WE, the Women's Caucus exhibition stands to celebrate the Society for Photographic Education’s Women's Caucus members and our diversity through the lens.
Exhibition Description
The Society for Photographic Education’s Women’s Caucus perpetually reinvents the definition of the presumptive “photographic document” and recalls the many interpersonal relationships within their female identifying role, identities, and responsibilities. This ongoing photographic and cinematic experience creates and examines the personal, and transcends a reflections of dedications to the recollection of the female human existence. WE, the Women’s Caucus have a collective story to share— a story about bringing life to our struggles, repairing damaged connections, and finding strength in solidarity and isolation.
WE, the Women’s Caucus Exhibition is an international, juried call-for-work from the members of the ( Society for Photographic Education) SPE’s Women’s Caucus. SPE is a member-based nonprofit organization, a leading forum for fostering understanding of photography in all its forms and related media. SPE engages its worldwide membership and affiliated communities through a range of supportive platforms including year-long programming, conferences, events, exhibitions and publications.
Where
A.B. Cohen Center
1658 Musketeer Dr
Cincinnati, OH 45207
When
Exhibition Opens October 2022
Website
Human Nature exhibition at DECODE Gallery Tuscon, Arizona
I’m please to announce my work will be on view at DECODE gallery in Tuscon, Arizona as a part of their upcoming exhibition entitled Human Nature.
EXHIBITION DATES:
June 11th-July 2nd 2022
https://www.decodegallery.com/
Rose Wind Jerome, Evie and the forbidden fruit #1962 from the series Black Mountain, c-print, 2019
Curated by Holly Hart, this show asks Who are you, who are we, what does it mean to you to be human? Human Nature is described as what fundamental characteristics make us. The ways we do things, the way we; explore, create, conquer, and care for one another. Exactly what these characteristics may be, vary from human to human. We are excited to discover your Human Nature.
A Smith Gallery Exhibition "SHE"
I’m happy to announce my image “mother and daughter (#451)” from the series Black Mountain will be featured in A Smith Gallery’s Summer exhibition entitled “SHE.” Images were curated by Sandra Chen Weinstein. The show opens online on June 10 and is on view through July 21, 2022. See the full show here: https://asmithgallery.com/exhibitions/she-3/
image courtesy rose wind jerome
ABOUT | Established in May, 2010, A Smith Gallery is located in Johnson City, Texas in the Nugent Avenue Arts District. The gallery exhibits the work of both amateur and professional photographers through juried and invitational exhibitions. A Smith Gallery along with the photography collective, Shootapalooza, created the world’s largest cyanotype in 2015. Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully are the Gallery Directors. Izzie is the gallery cat.
GALLERY MISSION STATEMENT | As a fine art photography gallery, A Smith Gallery’s mission is to promote the photographic arts through exhibitions, workshops and the facilitating of an active vibrant community of photographers. We celebrate photography in all its manifestations, analog, digital and alternative. Creativity is encouraged.
Featured on Blue Ridge Public Radio NPR March 2021
In March 2021, during my First Draft Residency at Revolve Art Space Matt Peiken interviewed me about the exhibition of photographs I displayed. The show featured images from my series “Black Mountain.”
The article may be read and listened to at the following link:
https://www.bpr.org/post/black-mountain-photographer-documents-gender-stereotypes-while-living-them#stream/0
International Photography Awards 2020 Honorable Mention
I am so thrilled to have received an honorable mention in the 2020 International Photography Awards. There were over 13,000 entries from 120 countries! It truly is an honor to have been selected to be published alongside such a diverse and talented group of photographers worldwide!
To see my page click here.
33rd Annual Eddie Adams Workshop in October 2020
I have been selected as 1 of 100 students to participate in the 33rd Annual Eddie Adams workshop in October 2020. My team leader is photographer Daniel Berehulak, three-time Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist.
To learn more visit: http://www.eddieadamsworkshop.com/
Photolucida's 2020 Critical Mass Top 200
Very happy to have made the top 200 list for this year’s Critical Mass! I’ll be going on to the next round, and hope to make the top 50!
To see more click the link below !
http://photolucidapdx.blogspot.com/2020/08/critical-mass-2020-finalists-announced.html
Communication Arts Photography Annual #61 July/August 2020
My work from the series “Black Mountain” was selected to be published in Communication Arts Photography Annual #61. Of 2500 entries, 121 artists were selected, only 8 of which were students. I am honored to have been chosen to showcase my work amongst this fine group of photographers by such a prestigious jury and in a magazine with Alex Honnold on the cover!
You can see the online publication here: https://www.commarts.com/project/31290/black-mountain
Out of the Pines | Wilma W. Daniels Gallery, Wilmington, NC
This January my worked will be exhibited in "Out of the Pines: Works by photography instructors from North Carolina Colleges and Universities" in the Wilma W. Daniels Gallery at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, NC. I am so happy to show work alongside my colleagues all over the state and look forward to meeting those who will be at the opening on Friday, January 26th 6-9pm.
WATER | The Center for Fine Art Photography, Ft. Collins, CO
I am pleased to be a part of the exhibition "WATER" curated by Jennifer Murray on view now in Ft. Collins, CO at the Center for Fine Art Photography. Thank you C4FAP for all that you do!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FORT COLLINS, CO | November 17, 2017
Water 2017 Exhibition Events
Exhibition: December 22 – January 27, 2018 Free Admission
Artist + Public Reception: January 26, 6:00 – 8:00 pm (Doors at 5:30 ) Free
Water 2017 Photography Exhibition This exhibition presents the prominent theme of water within the art of photography, both visually and conceptually, and across a range of photographic genres. “Few things encompass such a range of emotion as water – beautiful, calming, useful, seductive, and deadly. Recurring themes emerge in this collection of images: environmental concerns including water usage and the built environment, pollution, and drought; and human fragility in the face of water’s sublime including images that depict both the real and fantastic relationships we have with and in water”.
–Juror Jennifer Murray, 2017.
49 Featured Artists: Nicholas Abriola, Babeth Albert, Julie Brook Alexander, S Brian Berkun, John Bonath, Melissa Borman, Claire Burnett, Lorraine Castillo, Eugene Daams, Marianne Dalton, Ellie Davies, Scott Durka, Rachel Ferguson, Jerry Freedner, Caroline Fudala, Alessandra Tecla Gerevini, Anahid Ghorbani, James Glass, Carole Glauber, Alexander Heilner, Ken Hochfeld, Marty Ittner, Stephan Jahanshahi, Leslie Jean-Bart, Rose Wind Jerome, Andrea Laue, Tracy Laulhere, Alan Leder, Heami Lee, Bonnie Levinson, Court Loving, Andy Mattern, Chris McCann, Teresa Meier, Carsten Meier, Bobby Mills, David Obermeyer, Jane Paradise, Heather Perera, Beverly Poppe, Karol Rice, Lee Saloutos, Debora Schwedhelm, Julie Stephenson, Graham Stewart, JP Terlizzi, Preston Utley, Katie Waugh, and John Zimet.
+ Exhibitions and Receptions at C4FAP are always free and open to the public
+ Mingle with artists & art lovers at our reception Friday, January 26th from 5:30-8:00 pm
+ Please check our site at c4fap.org for event information and to sign up for email updates
+ Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin for more art and news
About C4FAP
Since 2004, The Center for Fine Art Photography has been a preeminent supporter of photography. As a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization, C4FAP is supported globally with donations, grants, and memberships. Based in Fort Collins, CO, the Center offers three public galleries with 20+ unique exhibitions yearly, classes, reviews and online exhibitions that give photographers and photography enthusiasts from all over the world an opportunity to engage with the Center and its community. For more information about C4FAP, including information on exhibitions, workshops, becoming a member or donor, please visit the website at C4FAP.ORG
Rose Wind Jerome, "Brian Jones, from 'Establishing Kinship'", archival pigment prints, 2017
Establishing Kinship | a photography project by rose wind jerome
On view at the Hanesbrand Theatre through December 2017 are a selection of prints from my ongoing project, Establishing Kinship.
ESTABLISHING KINSHIP | A PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT
In April 2016 I relocated to Winston-Salem with only one contact in the city. It wasn't my first time moving to a place with only one connection; I had done that years before when I moved to London. While this process of finding roots was not foreign, it was no less daunting 10 years later.
Jared Diamond, in his book Guns, Germs and Steel writes about the rise of civilizations and the growth of societies from small bands to tribes and on to our current states. Bands are the most basic organization of people, and are blood related, tribes are the next largest, and are kin related. In tribes, where there are more people contending for resources, establishing kinship is crucial to inclusion (which means survival.) I thought about that and wondered, how do we establish kinship in the US today?
With this question in mind, I wanted to document the process of building community. As a photographer, it is through the lens that I examine and explore our shared experiences, so I began making portraits of all of those people I was encountering and building relationships with. From colleagues to students, the post-man to baristas, I wanted to build a visual diary of the people who created the Winston-Salem I was getting to know.
For me, the arts have played a significant role in this experience. It is through Winston-Salem State University's art department and the Diggs gallery, Sawtooth Center for the Arts and Arts Nouveau Winston-Salem that I have been connected to so many of the people depicted on these walls. It is important to note that this is a work in progress, there are many people I would love to add and many more I have yet to meet.
These 40 images are a tiny sample of the rich diversity and complexity that is embodied in a community. This city of arts and innovation is not made up of bridges, buildings and businesses—it is made of the people who build, design and manage them. Ultimately these photographs aim to reflect on the individuals that add to the dynamism of a particular place, and highlight Winston-Salem in its uniqueness. They ask who we are in relationship to one other, building connections between disparate people who are all a part of the core of what makes a city, a place and a home.
-Rose Wind Jerome
A very special thank you to ANWS and to all of the beautiful people who sat
and allowed me to get very close to you, literally, with a camera and make a portrait
of you. And of course, thank you for making Winston-Salem better every day.
Andrea Fraser | Performance Artist - Sarah Thorton | Author
Reading the last page of "33 Artists in 3 Acts" by Sarah Thorton, author of "Seven Days in the Art World" is a relief. I kind of struggled through this book. Perhaps because I find the question "What is an artist?" as excruciating as many of the people who attempted to answer it seem to. The artists I've worked with over the years are extremely dissimilar, as are the 33 featured in this book. As described in this book, they seem to share two things in common- the label "artist" and their divergent goals and personal victories navigating the art world. No two are alike, even if married, and many disagree with each other's approach, practice and methods. That sums up so much of art to me that I find it amusing.
The artist who I was most intrigued by is Andrea Fraser. I am not going to repost any images from any of her performances here for fear of there being some big reason I'll get into trouble for it. I will say I am fully encouraging researching her more and I am going to quote Sarah Thorton quoting Andrea Fraser on page 376 of "33 Artists in 3 Acts."
' "Artists are not part of the solution," she says firmly. "We are part of the problem." What is the problem? I ask. "Give me a minute," she says..."Whether we are talking about cultural capital or economic capital," she says..."art benefits from inequality and the increasingly unequal distribution of social power and privilege. The avant-garde has been trying to escape its own privilege for the last hundred years, but the art world is increasingly a winner-take-all market." She stops and shakes her head. She feels that we are at "the beginning of a new epoch," citing the enormous expansion of the art market as well as art schools and museums that cater to the public's demand for spectacle as much as scholarship. "These things make all the contradictions of being an artist much more intense," she explains."'
- excerpt from Sarah Thorton's book "33 Artists in 3 Acts" page 376
From my perspective working day in and out for the last however many years, witnessing first hand the game that is the art world can be very difficult to stomach. Fraser sums up the challenges I see with art and the physical spaces that contain it being elitist, esoteric and exclusive. Part of my goal as an artist and professor is simply to demystify the entire experience of art and the art world, as much as that impenetrable bubble may be what makes the whole thing seem so valuable to those who collect and endorse it. Despite that, the increasing cost of art school and the privilege of entering those spaces is disheartening. Fraser herself teaches at UCLA, the top art school in the US (labeled by something somewhere.) Tuition at UCLA are posted below directly from their website.
Food for thought.
Chris Watts, "Will Smith Memento", 2012, Carbon, Ink, Graphite, Wood, Staple, on found paper. 7.5 x 7.5". This image is blogged here from the artists site to share his work and to comment on it for purposes of my blog only. Copyright is Chris Watts, Artist.
Chris Watts | Artist
In the South during the 1950’s, paper fans with wooden handles could be found everywhere. Churches, general stores, beauty parlors and barber shops had them readily available to combat the heavy Southern heat. Many fans were covered with religious iconography. It would be common to see depictions of Jesus surrounded by sheep or praying hands backlit by a heavenly glow. One might also see African-Americans leaders, such as the civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. or the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, while others had advertisements and other secular imagery.
These fans are remembered by older Americans as a part of everyday life in the South, and especially of religion and Sunday church services. In his Memento Series the artist Chris Watts appropriates the historical church fan by drawing African-Americans from more contemporary times in lightly shaded, highly detailed pencil drawings. When displayed together, Heavy D and Colin Powell may bookend the likes of TLC, Florence Griffith Joyner (known as Flo-Jo) and Mary J. Blige. African-American performers, celebrities, athletes and politicians of the 90’s and 2000’s are memorialized, icons of culture are embedded on a Southern symbol of hope and reverence.
Whether the artists’ intent was cynical or celebratory, Watt’s Memento Series take this symbolic object, the church fan, rich with Southern history, and repurposes it in 2016 as memorials to a group of African Americans who have become icons in their own right.
To see more of Chris Watt's work and to see the full "Memento Series" visit his web page: http://cargocollective.com/iamchriswatts/Memento-Series