Contact by Jake Shivery
Our first monograph featuring Portland photographer Jake Shivery’s 8×10 contact portraits captured on his large-format Deardorff camera. Contact is one half plates and one half extensive essay on Shivery’s photographic beliefs, process, life, and anecdotes.
9x12 inches
160 pgs.
57 plates + 36 additional images
Perfect bound, foil embossed cover
ISBN: 978-0-9844432-7-7
Limited Edition of 1,000
Introduction by Dr. Julian Nelson
Contact, which includes photos CNN said “show affection for Portland area [and its] residents,” presents Shivery’s 8×10 contact prints captured on his large format Deardorff camera. It’s a 160-page, limited-edition book separated into sections highlighting approximately 100 images by the artist, and an extensive essay on his photographic beliefs and process. Produced and printed in Portland Ore. Visit Jakeshivery.com for more on the artist and his work.
Jake Shivery's body of work is an earnest, honest, and admiring catalog of the North Portland neighborhood where he lives and works. What starts out as a simple concept—the photographs of loved ones in a common setting—becomes something much grander: a beautiful and thoughtful collection of souls ready for viewing. Working with an 8x10 film camera and printing in contact sheet form, Jake's tools and approach are less about capturing a moment as they are about capturing a mood and a life. His photographs are haunting, intimate, and layered with pieces of visual narration that together tell the story of both the subject and the artist.
This book is a bit more than a photo book, because Jake is a bit more than a photographer. When looking at one of his photographs, one feels a sense of a story. The narrative lens through which Jake views the world is due in part to his background as a writer, and thanks to his second talent this book will also contain an extensive and inspiring essay on photography as a practice and as a subject. The essay is both enamored with and incensed by the world of photography: Jake's honest and thoughtful account of his decades of photographic experience rings with a refreshing tone of truth.
While he is well-known among the Portland photography community, he has yet to make a mark on a nation-wide audience, making him the perfect first subject for One Twelve Publishing's series of featured artists. These artists, like Jake, have the work and the experience behind them to present a new and fresh view on the photographic world; all they've lacked is the publishing representation. With the added support of One Twelve Publishing's pre-existing and future viewership, they will finally have the opportunity to engage with the greater art world in the way that they need in order to continue on with their photographic careers.
“Somewhere between hopeful acquaintance and profound intimacy is where all of my portraits are made.”
Press
Artist Statement
Drawn to Oregon for the soft and diffused light, I’ve become solidly entrenched here because of the people. I’m interested in folks who are genuine and unique. I’m interested in craftspeople, passionate people and people of deep commitment and faith. I don’t care to speculate on what about the Northwest United States causes such a concentration of these types; I’m just pleased to be here.
I can’t shoot enough. I can’t hope to keep my work flow moving at the same pace at which I meet individuals who interest me. Even within the confines of my less-than-social life, I barely go a day without meeting someone whom I’d like to photograph. I am delighted to have a subject pool which persistently motivates me, not just to work, but to maddening passion. I keep working and hope for the best.
I am now unrepentant in my sole interest in the small subset of photography which may be referred to as formal portraiture. I appreciate all forms of photography and steal liberally from all that I see — every landscape, every still life, every street-oriented hip-shot that makes me stop and look- eventually distills down into a portrait.
Many people whom I know are resistant to being photographed. I try to embrace this resistance and capture it as part of the portrait. Ironically, this resistance often combines with cooperation, causes some of the formality, and yields a finished portrait. I shoot with large format because it takes effort — it’s a very simple way of implying to subjects that I’m serious and that I have the best of intentions.
Most importantly, I’m impressed with everyone I photograph. Ultimately, this is my declaration of affection and admiration for the people that I’m fortunate enough to know.
—Jake Shivery