Light Painting The Still Life Success Stories - Chris Jewett

I find it incredibly rewarding to witness the success of my students, whether it's through gallery representation, a featured exhibition, a magazine feature, or just the creation of beautiful images.

I've decided to share some of these "Success Stories" through a series of posts.

This post features the work and words of Chris Jewett.

Please take a look!

All images © Chris Jewett

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"Child's Play"

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Chris, thank you for doing this interview.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself… Where you live, and any other details that you find pertinent.

My name is Chris Jewett. I’m 74 years old and I live in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. My interest in photography germinated from Christmas presents (ie, a camera and rudimentary darkroom equipment) given to me by my parents when I was ten years old. I was developing and printing by the time I was 12. Years later, I took classes during my first couple of years of college. After I joined the Navy in 1970, my photo work took a back seat to my young family and career. By the late 1980s, it was practically non-existent. I did not pick up a camera again until about 2010, when I retired from the Navy. I soon found that, photographically speaking, things had changed. Welcome to the digital age.

  When did you begin making still photographs?

I have enjoyed not only photographing wildlife but also landscapes and abstracts since childhood. After I retired, the idea of making still-life photographs began to percolate and I started with a few household items as subjects, but the results were quite unsatisfactory; they resembled the residents of Edwin Abbott's Flatland.

"Glass Pitcher"

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Can you name some of your main influences?

Yes... Andreas Feininger, photographer and author; John LeBaron, a Sonoma County photojournalist and my first mentor; Evelyn Cameron, a Montana pioneer and early 20th century photographer; Edward Weston, especially his later work with still life; Aubrey Bodine and Marion Warren, both known for their photography of the Chesapeake Bay; and painters such as Vermeer, Hals, Rembrandt, Salvador Dali and Greg Mort.

Other influences include favorite subject matter, i.e., vegetables, fruits, hand tools, musical instruments, and a stockpile of antiques.

"Pulley and Canvas" 

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What motivates you to make photographic images?

Simply put, my motivation stems from a strange desire to put something 3-dimensional into a 2-dimensional media and at the same time have the result be something inspirational. I admire people who can do that, and that is something I strive for.

"Left Behind"

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 Do you use sketching or drawing to work up your concepts, or do you just work with subject matter until you find a good composition?

I cannot draw; I doodle. Mostly though, an idea for an actual composition will germinate and form as I play with objects on the still life set. That said, sometimes I “doodle” using various 3-D forms and geometric shapes; orbs, pyramids, cylinders and cubes, for example. From those basic shapes, I migrate to actual subject matter that relates to those shapes.

"Kitchen Crock"

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Do you ever have periods during which you struggle with inspiration?

Yes, and I believe that everyone has dry spells. When that happens to me, although frustrating, I just give it a break for a week or so. Fortunately for me, it doesn’t take long for inspiration to return.

"BIG Hammer, Little Anvil"

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What inspired you to get into light painting, and has it changed your creative approach to photography?

In 2010, I bought my first digital camera. I lived on the Maryland Eastern Shore at the time. The Eastern Shore provides burgeoning photographers with a great number of subjects to photograph! I have literally hundreds of bird, animal, and landscape images. I joined a photography club and I went on excursions with them. Well, it didn't take me long to figure out that many of my fellow camera club members produced basically the same bird, animal, and landscape images that I had produced. Some were better, some were not, but they all looked quite similar. Herons, egrets, pelicans, ducks, terns, ocean waves, sunsets and sunrises. I needed to find something different. Also, I was getting tired of lugging all of that equipment around!

 "Oysters"

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 One night, in 2015 or 2016, our club had you as a guest speaker. You talked about “Light Painting The Still Life” and “Skimming The Light” as you presented your work. This was my introduction to you! What you were doing was the “different” that I was looking for. The process you use revolutionized my whole creative approach to photography. Studio work isn't easy, and photographers need to understand the properties of light and the physics of using it to "sculpt” their subjects. What was going on in those images of yours is what I had always wanted to do, even as a young boy. That is, to make photographs of things that looked so real you could reach out and touch them. You could feel the texture, imagine rubbing your hands across the smooth forms of objects, and actually look into the shadows! It was so “cool!”

"Blowtorch"

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What is it about light painting that helps you to get across your creative message to your viewers?

I have always wanted to light my subject matter in just the right places in order to capture the color, shape, form, and texture of what I photographed. In my opinion, this is what makes photography “art.” Therefore, I create art. And, sometimes, that is exactly what people see.

"Bicycle Lamp"

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Can you briefly describe the process that you go through when creating a composition?

Again, sometimes I will doodle something and work on setting up elements based on that…but really, most of the time I just select some subjects off a shelf or out of a box, and start working on a composition from there. I like to move the elements around to ensure that I get the most interesting angle, and I try not to use more than three pieces. I find that the more crowded the stage, the easier it is for the uniqueness of objects to get lost. As you taught me, "simple is best"; that is why you may only see a single object in one of my images.

"Valve Grinder"

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Can you tell us a bit about your gallery representation?

I was fortunate enough to have a gallery owner in Annapolis, Maryland (Annapolis Collection Gallery at 55 West Street) see one of my images in the frame shop we both used. They contacted me and asked if I would bring some of my images in for them to look at. I did. They liked the “artistry” (chiaroscuro, painterly, etc) of the still lifes and asked me if I would like to become a “resident artist” in their gallery. They agreed to display my work, and I have a “show” there twice a year (in the May and November timeframes). The funny thing is, I don’t do it for the money; I do it because I enjoy it. I love what I do, and if a gallery wants to exhibit my work, great!

If you were forced to choose one of your images to represent your work and photography, what image would that be?

Teapot 26. It is one of my favorites. It is a purposely stark rendering, yet the shape, texture, and make-up of the teapot, as well as the twig beside it and the board it sits on, clearly come through and the elements speak of an item left alone on a shelf in a dark corner of an old kitchen. I have sold it in framed sizes ranging from 11” to 48” in width.

"Teapot 26"

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What advice would you give to a beginning photographer/artist?

Photographers, start shooting whatever "trips your shutter". It won’t be long before you zero in on what captures your passion for the art.

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(All images by Chris Jewett)

Click Here to See more of Chris's Work

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 Creating light-painted still-life images is incredibly rewarding, and I teach it in great detail:

Light Painting The Still Life Online Video Course

See what students are saying about my course HERE