Joe Adreon Keller has worked in still and motion film media for more than 30 years. His varied professional career in photography spans product advertising to journalistic work for publications such as Rolling Stone and Interview, and the book, "Animal Factories." His work is in private & public collections, including the Wallach Collection of the New York Public Library. His abiding personal interest has been the human-altered landscape and all the species and flora that exist there.
Born in NY, he studied at Georgetown, NYU, and Columbia University, from which he received an MFA. He has taught at City University of New York among other institutions. He currently lives out West, in Portland, Oregon, and is involved with the creation of limited edition books.
Born in NY, he studied at Georgetown, NYU, and Columbia University, from which he received an MFA. He has taught at City University of New York among other institutions. He currently lives out West, in Portland, Oregon, and is involved with the creation of limited edition books.
On Photographing Out West:
"As the trees are so large, so out of scale, a mild derangement has overtaken me out here. I walk around a lot and am attentive to the moist air, the sounds of birds and of traffic, the undulations of the path under my feet, the commotion in the alley, the baroque shadowed rhythm of a bough.
I try not to stare - even at trees. But nevertheless, at some "then and there," a line of sight is strung and I stop to make a still (and thereby still the endless flow of information that comprises the world). Was it the accelerating speed of 19th century life that made this camera necessary?
Today everyone carries an image recording device to memorialize the passing glories: “Me in Paris, Me in Rome” or Paris, Texas, or Disneyland; and then there is you and the costumes, roses, sunsets, the animals with super powers, the clowning friends, Spain, and all the rest. See the flaming wreck, and hey, it’s not the usual state of affairs!
In choosing the one angle, one framing among the infinity of framings, one light among infinity of lights, we engage in myth-making and poetry in representation. Each of us makes a gallery of wonders. The most interesting are hung with images that set off dense webs of association in which the faraway comes up close, and the close up becomes so faraway."
"As the trees are so large, so out of scale, a mild derangement has overtaken me out here. I walk around a lot and am attentive to the moist air, the sounds of birds and of traffic, the undulations of the path under my feet, the commotion in the alley, the baroque shadowed rhythm of a bough.
I try not to stare - even at trees. But nevertheless, at some "then and there," a line of sight is strung and I stop to make a still (and thereby still the endless flow of information that comprises the world). Was it the accelerating speed of 19th century life that made this camera necessary?
Today everyone carries an image recording device to memorialize the passing glories: “Me in Paris, Me in Rome” or Paris, Texas, or Disneyland; and then there is you and the costumes, roses, sunsets, the animals with super powers, the clowning friends, Spain, and all the rest. See the flaming wreck, and hey, it’s not the usual state of affairs!
In choosing the one angle, one framing among the infinity of framings, one light among infinity of lights, we engage in myth-making and poetry in representation. Each of us makes a gallery of wonders. The most interesting are hung with images that set off dense webs of association in which the faraway comes up close, and the close up becomes so faraway."
