Filmmaker and photographer Jesse Andrewartha examines the collision of humankind with the physical world, using the photographic image to connect the viewer to this struggle, revealing domains that extend beyond our senses. Introduced to the magic of silver halide as a post-graduate in Scientific Photography at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Jesse’s photography has eschewed the digital realm for over twenty years. He utilizes almost exclusively analog workflows; 16mm and 35mm motion picture film and historical photographic processes such as daguerreotype, platinotype and uranotype. Digital technology is saturated with narrative images – especially that of dematerialization: the myth of digital images as free-floating forms, disembodied entities that proliferate in the networked world. But all technologies of creation and circulation are embodied. Integral to these are vital minerals extracted from the Earth. Jesse chooses these analog processes for their constituent metals and historical context to create forms of embodied visualization that no digital technology can replicate. Jesse is a veteran of the visual effects industry and is active in the Vancouver analog film community and has screened film with the Vancouver Art Gallery as well as festivals such as BLUE and SDUFEX. Jesse’s current work, “Transmutations: Visualizing Matter | Materializing Vision”, is a multi-media investigation into how the unique photographic capacities of uranium, combined with associations of the geopolitical history in which it is entangled, can illuminate the agency of matter and the lives & communities impacted by its extraction. www.hirudinfilms.com
Jesse Andrewartha, Uraninite, Blue Lizard Mine, Utah, 2019, uranotype print, 38.1 x 38.1 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha, Uraninite, Inter-River Region, San Juan County, Utah, 2019, uranotype print, 38.1 x 38.1 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha, Anonymous, Happy Jack Mine, 2019, platinum/palladium print from original negative, 20.32 x 50.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha, Some of the happiest and best times of my life, 2019, platinum/palladium print from original negative, 20.32 x 50.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist
Jesse Andrewartha, 10,080 counts per minute, Happy Jack Mine, 2019, platinum/palladium print from original negative, 20.32 x 50.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha, Charlie Steen's Mi Vida, 2019, platinum/palladium print from original negative, 20.32 x 50.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha, Klee Benally, Indigenous anarchist, anti-uranium activist, 2019, platinum palladium print, 20.32 x 50.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha, Uraninite, Blue Lizard Mine, Utah, 2019, uranotype print, 38.1 x 38.1 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha, Uraninite, Inter-River Region, San Juan County, Utah, 2019, uranotype print, 38.1 x 38.1 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha, Anonymous, Happy Jack Mine, 2019, platinum/palladium print from original negative, 20.32 x 50.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha, Some of the happiest and best times of my life, 2019, platinum/palladium print from original negative, 20.32 x 50.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist
Jesse Andrewartha, 10,080 counts per minute, Happy Jack Mine, 2019, platinum/palladium print from original negative, 20.32 x 50.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha, Charlie Steen's Mi Vida, 2019, platinum/palladium print from original negative, 20.32 x 50.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha, Klee Benally, Indigenous anarchist, anti-uranium activist, 2019, platinum palladium print, 20.32 x 50.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Jesse Andrewartha
Capture Photography Festival Participation
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Add to ItineraryTransmutations: Visualizing Matter | Materializing Vision
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