Contemporary Fine Art Photography

Over the years, Jeff Corwin has taken photos hanging out of a helicopter over the Thames River, in the jungles of Borneo, on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Italian aircraft carrier Garibaldi while photographing Harrier Jet missions over the Tyrrhenian Sea for Rolls-Royce. 

He has done photo shoots in 41 countries on five continents, including Moscow - accompanied by two retired KGB agents with AK-47’s for protection - and in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the mid-80’s.  His hottest photo shoot: Abu Dhabi at 114 °F. The coldest: Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada at -40 °F. 

After 40+ years as a commercial photographer, Corwin has turned his discerning eye to fine art photography. He brought the same vision forward, creating photographs grounded in design. Also, his early formal studies with Arnold Newman, environmental portrait master in Rockport, Maine, provided him with a solid technical bedrock for his landscape photography that still serves him today. 

Corwin's response to the Sandy Hook shootings was to use his artistry to express his thoughts on "the absence of sane policy in the United States."

For Corwin, a recognition of what personally resonates - a reaction to experience, spirit and instinct, as well as simplicity, graphic forms and strong configurations that repeat - is what is important.. 

Corwin gravitates to the stark and isolated vistas because they speak to him. It is what he sees because it is what he feels.   His elaborately planned and executed studio shoots are how he shows the viewer what he feels.  

After my father passed away in 2007 and as I was going through his possessions, I came across 3 vintage handguns I never knew he had. Given the violence in this country’s current history, I was undecided at the time as to what to do with them. Torn between the fact they belonged to my dad and my feelings regarding US policy on gun control, I decided to just put them in a lock box and store them in the basement until I was in a clearer mind-set to make a good decision. 

Jump ahead to late 2012 and the Sandy Hook shooting. My good friend and fellow photographer planned a road trip to do some shooting of our own, only with cameras. 

As was the custom with our travels, it provided a lot of time to talk. Music, family, photography, movies and the latest news were always part of our drives. The horrifying murders in Connecticut had recently happened and we were both depressed about the current state of affairs in our country. It occurred to me then, that I had never dealt with my father’s guns and I suddenly felt hypocritical having them. I told my friend this and that I was ready to get rid of them. After a few moments of silence his reply was, “before you do, you should photograph them”. 

Jump ahead to early 2013. I had just treated myself to a year lease on a studio in Pioneer Square, Seattle, not really knowing what I was even going to do with it. After 35 years of commercial work, I never had a studio, as my assignments were always on location. 

Pacing around an empty space is intimidating to me, as there is then the responsibility to fill it. One day the conversation with my buddy came to mind and the next morning, I brought the guns to the studio and laid them out on the worktable. I basically just circled and stared at them for days. I didn’t have any emotional connection with them at all. I didn’t even know my dad had guns. I gradually brought out strobes and tried different approaches in black and white, but they all left me feeling indifferent. I had recently found a piece of rusty, painted metal that I planned to use for a portrait. It was square with a round yellow flaking shape in the middle. I laid the gun on top and took a test shot in color. 

It was then that something snapped. The image still didn’t really communicate anything to me, (other than being pretty) but I felt that I was going in the right direction. I would go on to use the guns illustrating my thoughts on the absence of sane policy in the United States. 

For the rest of that year, I spent hours upon hours wandering antique stores and junkyards looking for props to build the sets. The lighting became a paramount component of the images that followed; harsh light, both frontal and from the side, with loud, tweaked and saturated colors. 

The images are not subtle. Nor is the subject matter and the violence that we face every single day. 

Corwin's career shift into fine art photography has been met with serious attention. 

As of the publication of "Guns + America," Corwin has current solo shows of landscape photography at the Summerlin Library Gallery in Las Vegas, Nevada and Colorida Galeria, Lisbon, Portugal, and his work is being featured at the Masur Museum, Monroe, Louisiana. 

His current traveling show, Guns in America, which debuted in 2021 at the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria, Illinois and then moved on to DragonFLY Creative Spaces, Chicago, Illinois, was also exhibited at the Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana in 2022. Other exhibitions include the Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, Massachusetts; New York University (NYU) Tandon School of Engineering; Brooklyn, New York; The Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington; The Art Spirit Gallery, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Echo Arts, Bozeman, Montana; Creighton Block, Big Sky, Montana; Meadows Gallery, University of Texas at Tyler; and Hawk Merlin Gallery, Stevenson, Washington. 

Cahier d’images, Luxembourg, included Corwin in a multi-artist fine art photography collection in 2022, and he is a selected artist for the Art Folio Annual 2022 coffee table book. Global press coverage includes, among others, Art Reveal Magazine, United Kingdom; Artdose; Magazine 43, Berlin, Hong Kong, Manila; Into The Void, Vancouver; LandEscape Art Review, United Kingdom; MVIBE Magazine, New York; All About Photo; 805 Lit + Art; F-Stop Magazine; The Working Artist; Apero Catalogue; Interalia, UK and FOTO Cult, Rome. 

Corwin is a recent award recipient of Black and White Prize Winner: Honorable Mention from the New York Center for Photographic Art.  SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico included his work in the recent Gen-erate 2022 panel discussion.  He has been interviewed on KSFR Santa Fe Public Radio/Cline’s Corner, UMFM Radio/Art World Innovators, Manitoba, Canada and WCBU Peoria Public Radio/Out and About. 

Corwin's gallery representation includes Courtney Collins Fine Art, Big Sky, Montana; Stapleton Gallery, Billings, Montana; Echo Arts, Bozeman, Montana; and Stewart Gallery, Boise, Idaho. 

Solo Exhibitions

2022 Jeff Corwin , Colorida Galeria del Arte, Lisbon, Portugal 

Jeff Corwin: Landscapes , Summerlin Library Gallery, Las Vegas, Nevada 

Guns in America , Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana

Guns in America, Echo Arts, Bozeman Montana  

2021 Guns in America , DragonFLY Gallery & Creative Spaces, Chicago, Illinois 

Guns in America , Contemporary Art Center of Peoria, Peoria, Illinois 

2019 Jeff Corwin, Creighton Block, Big Sky, Montana 

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022:

Gen-erate, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico 

Annual Exhibition, Masur Museum, Monroe, Louisiana 

2021:

Art in the Wild, New York University (NYU) Tandon School of Engineering/Integrated Design and Media (IDM), Brooklyn, New York 

Ruins, New Mexico Series, Still Point Arts Gallery, Brunswick, Maine 

Unwrap the Creative – 25th Annual Small Works Invitational, The Art Spirit Gallery, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 

Real or Imagined, Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA 

Spirit of Flight 2021 – Flying Again, The Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington 

2020:

Show the Flag, Stapleton Gallery, Billings, Montana 

36th Annual International Exhibition, Meadows Gallery, University of Texas at Tyler 

2018:

“A 14-Year Road Trip” with Tyler Boley, Hawk Merlin Gallery, Stevenson, Washington

2009:

Washington State Landscapes with Jeff Corwin, Tyler Boley and Nicolas Pavlov, Benham Gallery, Seattle, Washington 

Fine Art Photography

2005-2023 Landscapes – New Mexico, Washington and Montana 

2013-2022 Guns in America series 

2002 Farm Workers, portraits, Vantage and Mount Vernon, Washington

1986-87 American Architects, portrait series, various locations in United States