Seventies Color
April 1 – 27, 1983
Winds of summer fields
Recollect the way,–
Instinct picking up the key
Dropped by memory.
Emily Dickinson, 1891
Up until the mid 1970s – I was firmly embedded in the documentary style – and particularly in a school of photography that was most concerned with facts. A photograph was supposed to be descriptive and intelligient. Photographs were meant to document things – or at least – the illusion of such – but certainly not emotions – and never feelings.
“Seventies Color” was at the heart of that journey – into a new world of photographic realms and possibilities. And it began with color – not so much as form – but color as content. Still working within the guidelines of the documentary tradition – I found color to be both electrifying and liberating. From the color of atmosphere – to wind – to sensation – to a host of intangibles – it was not so much about how color looked – but how it felt.
I went about exploring the land. Not so much to extract a revelation – or to posit a theorem – but to learn about life and culture through seeing. What role did color play in that narrative?
“Instinct picking up the key / Dropped by memory.” Dickinson could not have said it any better – or more succinctly. My instincts mirrored what my curiosities could only hint at: border and boundary; land and sea; weather and atmosphere. At that intersection – there were so many complex dramas playing out – in nature, humanity, culture, and – in the very color of life itself.
Len Jenshel is one of America’s foremost landscape photographers, exploring beauty, boundary and the control of nature for nearly 50 years.
He has received numerous fellowships including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts, and grants from the Graham Foundation, two grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Design Trust for Public Space, and two grants from the National Geographic Society.
He has published numerous monographs, including Travels in the American West (Smithsonian, 1992), and with his wife, Diane Cook, HOT SPOTS: America’s Volcanic Landscape (Bulfinch Press, 1996), Aquarium (Aperture, 2003), and, Wise Trees (Abrams, 2017).
His photographs have been exhibited internationally in one-person shows at the Yokohama Museum in Japan, the Art Institute of Chicago, the International Center of Photography in New York City, to name a few. His work is represented in over one hundred museums and major collections worldwide.
Len & Diane’s work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art, New York; George Eastman House, Rochester; ICP, New York; SFMoMA, San Francisco, among many others.
Len resides in New York City, with his wife (and collaborator) Diane Cook.