Jim Friesen — Poet Photographer

 

Jim Friesen: Pitt Lake — Insuflation

Jim Friesen’s photography reads as a metaphor of oncoming disaster or the release of tension, implying the cyclical nature of storytelling. Having studied both literature and photography, he is interested in the dynamic between words and images and how the imagination is stimulated by their collaboration. Friesen's landscape series in Telling Stories is an experiment in that direction. His titles are doors to works of art, invitations to dwell in the visual space and contemplate. The sky, particularly, becomes a character in his photographic narrative.  The tension, meteorological and emotional, awaits a rapid pressure drop. 

In his own words, Photographs are an exploration. Photographers explore the world, and through their choices they explore themselves. The viewer enters the process which creates a narrative. Insufflation was the word that triggered the idea for the four-photo series in this show. It describes a process in both forensic sciences that has to do with revealing fingerprints. It also describes an arcane practice in the exorcism ritual. I hoped for titles that added a layer of meaning and inspired the imagination without limiting the responses of the viewer.

Best B4 Collective Artist, June Yun
speaking to Strathcona Elementary School visitors
about her appreciation for  Jim Friesen's Pitt Lake — Insuflation