Poignant Portfolio no. 45: Jason Lindsey
From the Editor
I’m on a bit of a tear here with some environmental articles and bodies of work. It’s hard to pass them up, primarily because of the immediacy of the situation facing future generations. I think anyone with an eye towards wanting to live on an inhabitable planet and avoiding severe climate disasters might be having some sleepless hours during the night on occasion. Speaking about the gravity of the situation and what may come of it to the youth of our world has become a top priority for many, especially parents. So once again, I bring you something to chew on and think about. This time around is a body of work I saw while reviewing portfolios during Review Santa Fe last November – Cracks in the Ice, by photographer Jason Lindsey.
I’ll keep this one simple this time, as Lindsey’s artist statement below does such a great and accurate job of articulating the project and its intention. However, I did want to add what I feel is a stellar example of using our past, with found photographs in this case, to illustrate the idea put forth in this work. Lindsey’s use of taking broken lantern slides, and in many cases breaking them himself, is a brutal act that mirrors what has already happened with climate change, yet more so, what is likely to transpire. Avoiding catastrophe takes center stage in this collection and is done so with eye-opening precision. My hat is also off to him for the fact that lantern slides had been primarily used for not just entertainment but education in classrooms and lecture halls and were only replaced with the advent of the modern-day slide projector. These slides hold so much historical data that it feels so apropos to use them in this very contemporary way.
One last note on this is that while exploring Lindsay’s work further, which I often ask readers to do with the people I highlight, is that there seems to be a companion collection to Cracks in the Ice called Fractured History. This collection facilitates the same process, but this time examines an understanding of Native American culture in North Dakota. So please get yourselves over to his website and dive in a little deeper with his work. You won’t be sorry.
Cracks In the Ice
The Cracks in the Ice project was inspired by my 15-year-old son, Björn. During one of our many daily chats, he asked about Climate Change and what the world will look like in the future. I realized I had only murky visions of that future myself and could not give him a clear answer. His precarious start in life and surgeries makes him crave stability. As a father, I hated that I could not provide much clarity for Björn and knew I needed to explore this idea with a photography project. Cracks in the Ice was born.
As I look to the future, the world that my son will inherit, and the forest where I live that may soon be on fire, climate change and the immediate impact on the environment constantly weighs on my mind. I thought about how scientists often look to the past to predict our future and decided to do my own research into historical images of glaciers. I curated a series of Magic Lantern educational glass slides to examine and consider. Each revealed a vintage photograph of glaciers, now disappearing or already gone. I shattered the glass negatives to call attention to this loss and fragility of our planet, but also to echo an experience with my newborn son's first four months stay in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care or his 20 surgeries and six years of 120-hour-a-week home nursing. Cracks in the Ice is a metaphor for the precariousness and vulnerability of those I love. It is also a way to speak to the profound loss from global warming and a planet under siege.
–Jason Lindsey
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About the Artist
Jason Lindsey is a Midwest-based photographer and filmmaker working to interpret science and the human impacts and relationship to the natural world. Lindsey considers himself a poetic activist using his art to drive social change.
Lindsey received his BA in Fine Art from Illinois State University. Lindsey has a 20-year career in advertising and editorial photography with a continued focus on Fine Art Photography. Lindsey is currently the Artist in Residence at Prairie Rivers Network and has photographs in a United Nations Climate Change and The Climate Museum exhibit in New York City and another United Nations exhibit in Paris.
He has been featured in PDN, Communication Arts, and Archive Magazine and was named one of the top 200 Advertising Photographers Worldwide in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. Lindsey’s book “Windy City Wild: Chicago’s Natural Wonders” was published by Chicago Review Press. Ask Jason about his 100% Solar powered studio if you are into that kind of thing.
jasonlindsey.art
IG: @jasonlindseyphoto
About the author
Michael Kirchoff works in the worlds of both commercial and fine art photography. A commercial shooter for over thirty years, it is his fine art work that has set him apart from others, with instant film and toy camera images fueling several bodies of work. His consulting, training, and overall support of his fellow photographic artist continues with assistance in constructing one’s vision, reviewing portfolios, and finding exhibition opportunities, which fill the gaps in time away from active shooting.
Michael is also an independent curator and juror, and advocate for the photographic arts. Currently, he is also Editor-in-Chief at Analog Forever Magazine, and is the Founding Editor for the online photographer interview website, Catalyst: Interviews. Previously, Michael spent over four years as Editor at BLUR magazine.
Most recently Michael joined the Diffusion Tapes podcast as co-host.