James Reeder lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. James was born in Grand Ledge, MI, and graduated from Pacific Union College in CA. James has been included in dozens of exhibitions in New York and beyond. Recent exhibition venues include Brooklyn Fire Proof Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Storefront Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; NURTUREArt, Brooklyn, NY; Laundromat Gallery in Toyko and Brooklyn, Projective City in Paris, France; and Mixed Greens in New York, NY. Solo exhibition venues include Lesley Heller Workspace, New York, NY; A.M. Richard Fine Art in Brooklyn, NY; and ATA Window Gallery in San Francisco, CA. James has taught black and white photography at university was director of DIY photography project space Silver Projects in Brooklyn.
I begin by taking photographs from magazines and books. I reassemble and rephotograph these found images as objects in a studio. Source material includes images of hands in gestures of labor and images of artifacts from the do-it-yourself history of photography, science, and technology popular in printed media in the last century through today. These images reference a ritual of the analogue at the point when labor and leisure begin to merge. I locate analog source material using keyword searches within digital networks, the studio acting as mediator between analog and digital.
The paradoxical relationship between substitute and original is also at play, reinforced by built stands and other methods of display. The images are decontextualized in this staged studio setting and become open-ended, intersecting and looping back into the constant rush of visual information. My photographs construct a disjointed and disorienting mashup based around the acts of seeing and doing, around gaze, gesture, and the photograph.
