Jim Kazanjian is a Portland-based artist who uses a technique described as “hyper-collage.” Blending up to fifty photographs into one homogenized image. His method of construction has an improvisational and random quality to it, since it is largely driven by the source material he has available. It is an interactive and organic process with the end result being many times removed from it’s origins. Kazajiian has chosen photography as a medium because of the cultural misunderstanding that comes from a sort of built-in objectivity. He started exhibiting with the Jennifer Kostuik Gallery in July 2013.
“My images are digitally manipulated composites built from photographs I find online. The technique I use could be considered ‘hyper-collage.’ I cobble together pieces from photos I find interesting and feed them into Photoshop. Through a palimpsest-like layering process of adding and subtracting, I gradually blend the various parts together. I am basically manipulating and assembling a disparate array of multiple photographic elements (sometimes more than 50) to produce a single homogenized image. I do not use a camera at any stage in the process.
My method of construction has an improvisational and random quality to it, since it is largely driven by the source material I have available. I wade through my archive constantly and search for interesting combinations and relationships. Each new piece I bring to the composition informs the image’s potential direction. It is an iterative and organic process where the end result is many times removed from its origin. I think of the work as a type of mutation which can haphazardly spawn in numerous and unpredictable directions.”