Artist Biography & Commentary
Jerome Martin is an Edmonton based photographer who makes exquisite images in the grand documentary tradition which drives the medium of photography. At present, he is probably one of the very few photographers who has continued to produce his art with old-fashioned film, enlargers, darkroom chemicals in trays, silver gelatin paper, timed exposures, red lights and deep love of the medium. And make no mistake, Jerome has a deep love of the medium and of the subject matter he records.
Jerome Martin has been working in the same bright, well designed darkroom for more than forty years. Born in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, on the edge of the Cypress Hills, he lived on a farm north of Maple Creek , and in the nearby village of Golden Prairie.
At 18, the young man left the farm and village, but it did not leave him, as he pursued an education and graduated from the Universities of Saskatchewan and Alberta. While living and working in Edmonton in the late 1960's, he attended photography sessions with the legendary Hubert Hohn through the Edmonton Art Gallery, one of a young group of enthusiastic photographers seeking artistic insight and technical knowledge. At the time, few gallery directors/ curators recognized or supported photography as a medium of fine art, but the EAG did, and Jerome was one of the artists, along with Orest Semchisen, featured in the first exhibition of photography at the EAG in 1974.
Since then he has continued to take pictures in southern Saskatchewan as well as Ireland, England, Japan, Kenya and the USA. He has works in the collections of Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the U of Alberta as well as private collectors. He has maintained a publishing company, Spotted Cow Press, where you can find his photos posted., Spotted Cow Press Online Journal @ pjmartin.
If you love photography, and/or have roots in Saskatchewan, you should see these photographs, and frankly, consider a purchase.
While these photos are deeply personal for the author, they exhibit the deep love of the prairie that inhabits the souls of
Saskatchewanians, whether they are born or have come to live there. It is simply a condition of being in Saskatchewan.
These images are taken with an understanding of the aspects of form at play in the viewfinder, and the keen eye that finds compositions and measures light. Martin's instinctive insight of the subject matter, the people and their social conditions comes through in every image. His love of the prairie landscape is imbedded in every image, beneath the roads and grass and behind every store front and copse of trees. As a result, they are hauntingly beautiful and memorable, as documents and as visual prairie psalms...
These pictures are available for sale as one shot prints, or in groups of images, as silver gelatin prints (as opposed to digital ink prints) produced in the darkroom. Please come and view the complete exhibition. Contact us for prices.
Jerome Martin has been working in the same bright, well designed darkroom for more than forty years. Born in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, on the edge of the Cypress Hills, he lived on a farm north of Maple Creek , and in the nearby village of Golden Prairie.
At 18, the young man left the farm and village, but it did not leave him, as he pursued an education and graduated from the Universities of Saskatchewan and Alberta. While living and working in Edmonton in the late 1960's, he attended photography sessions with the legendary Hubert Hohn through the Edmonton Art Gallery, one of a young group of enthusiastic photographers seeking artistic insight and technical knowledge. At the time, few gallery directors/ curators recognized or supported photography as a medium of fine art, but the EAG did, and Jerome was one of the artists, along with Orest Semchisen, featured in the first exhibition of photography at the EAG in 1974.
Since then he has continued to take pictures in southern Saskatchewan as well as Ireland, England, Japan, Kenya and the USA. He has works in the collections of Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the U of Alberta as well as private collectors. He has maintained a publishing company, Spotted Cow Press, where you can find his photos posted., Spotted Cow Press Online Journal @ pjmartin.
If you love photography, and/or have roots in Saskatchewan, you should see these photographs, and frankly, consider a purchase.
While these photos are deeply personal for the author, they exhibit the deep love of the prairie that inhabits the souls of
Saskatchewanians, whether they are born or have come to live there. It is simply a condition of being in Saskatchewan.
These images are taken with an understanding of the aspects of form at play in the viewfinder, and the keen eye that finds compositions and measures light. Martin's instinctive insight of the subject matter, the people and their social conditions comes through in every image. His love of the prairie landscape is imbedded in every image, beneath the roads and grass and behind every store front and copse of trees. As a result, they are hauntingly beautiful and memorable, as documents and as visual prairie psalms...
These pictures are available for sale as one shot prints, or in groups of images, as silver gelatin prints (as opposed to digital ink prints) produced in the darkroom. Please come and view the complete exhibition. Contact us for prices.
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