Artist Statement
The trees, landscape, and the fruit in a Japanese apple orchard combine to form a fascinating environment that bears witness to the effects of human intervention.

This landscape possesses a powerfully seductive psychology, which spoke to me like none other before. It sang of passion, temptation, fertility, and desire. It sighed of death and endings as the seasons turned, and, at the same time, it whispered the promise of renewal.

At every turn, I listened. Process Statement
This project was shot with a variety of film-based medium format cameras and archivally printed with pigment inks on digital watercolor paper.

 

 

All of Jane Alden Stevens’ photographic work, regardless of subject matter, draws from history. History is critical to understanding the relationship between humans and the world they create and inhabit. Whether the personal histories of individuals, the history of a particular culture, or the history of a global event, she has always been passionate about the stories of the past. While some tales are complex and others intimate, they all offer lessons to those who would hear them.

Furthermore, she is fascinated by the impact that humans have on the land they live on. Sometimes they seek to bend it to their will, while at others their effect is unintentional, but still evident nonetheless. At times, they worship the land and leave it undisturbed. There are stories to be told about this human intervention, and some of them find their way into Stevens’ work.

Reading and research underlie her artistic practice. Throughout her career, she has studied aspects of psychology, sociology, art, religion, music, economics, agriculture, politics, and geography to guide her when working on a project. This breadth of knowledge provides her with a multi-faceted perspective of the topic as she wrestles with it, allowing her to move forward to create metaphorical meanings that extend beyond the subject matter at hand.

Jane Alden Stevens lives and works in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has exhibited and published her photography extensively both in the US and abroad. Grants include an English-Speaking Union Travel-Study Grant (2000), and two Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Grant s (1990, 2002). She is the author of “Tears of Stone: World War I Remembered” (2004).

Stevens’ photographs can be found in the permanent collections of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Cincinnati Art Museum.

 

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