Jack Jeffers...

Recent News and Representation: The main news for Spring 2008 is the upcoming move from WY to Montrose, CO on June 11. Jack is looking forward to exploring a vast, new-to-him territory with the San Juans to the south, the Uncompaghre Plateau to the west, the Grand Mesa to the north and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison just east of our new home. It's enough to keep him busy for quite awhile and you can look for new digital images in the coming months.

In 2006 Jack became involved with the Center for Railroad Photography in Madison, WI. They now have a collection of several of his Shay locomotive prints and exhibit them, along with other railroad images, at various locations around the country. Please check their website for exhibition information. www.railphoto-art.org

Collectors need to know that in the spring of 2005 Jack printed his last fine art silver print and sold his darkroom equipment. After 60+ years of printing he decided it was time to enjoy his vast collection and to orient his efforts toward ensuring that it is preserved for future generations. Now in his spare time, he's having fun exploring digital photography. It keeps his brain active and his eye always searching for one more lovely image.

Jack's work can be viewed at Tierra Montana Gallery in Livingston, MT.

Biographical Sketch

Jack's interest in the arts began about fifty-five years ago and he took his first major step into the art world during the mid sixties. In 1972, he took his first best-in-show award in a large, all-media art show, the first such award in the country for a fine art photographer.

Since then Jack has won top awards in numerous art shows and several thousand of his original silver images have been acquired by private and corporate collectors including Hershey Chocolate Co., John D. Rockefeller, IV, Philip Morris USA, Eastman Kodak Co., Ferrum College, Carson-Newman College, Longwood University, Radford University, The Smithsonian Museum, and The Virginia Historical Society.

More than fifty technical articles by Jack have been published during the past thirty years. A recent example is the feature article, A Satisfying Career: Memorable Moments from an Artist's Note Pad in the May 2004 issue of ART CALENDAR. Another example is an article about hand coloring with oils, which appeared in the April 2002 issue of POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY. More recently a second feature about hand coloring appeared in SHUTTERBUG MAGAZINE, December 2004.

An equally impressive number of stories featuring Jack’s work have been published by the news media. In January 2006 Blue Ridge Country magazine did a feature article on Jack's Appalachian Collection and in the same vein the Roanoke Times--New River Valley edition also highlighted Jack's long connection with that region. The DENVER POST printed a staff feature that dominated the Arts and Entertainment Section of their Sunday edition in September 2001.

Two books containing selections from his Appalachian Collection have also been published: Windows on the Blue Ridge, out of print, and Appalachian Byways, still available. Another collection of his works, Exploring the Appalachians and Beyond: The Trail of an Artist, is awaiting publication.

In 1997, Jack and his wife Pat retired to a new location at the foot of the Wind River Mountains in central Wyoming. It was a childhood dream come true. Here Jack sought out new western concepts and concentrated on very short print editions for collectors of museum-quality images.

Before leaving his home state in Virginia, Jack donated about one hundred and twenty five large, framed works to the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, so future generations might view a broad segment of his Appalachian Collection. This was followed by similar donations to the Appalachian Center at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee, to the permanent collection of Longwood University, Farmville, VA, and to the permanent collection of Radford University, Radford, VA. Earlier a selection of Jack's work was donated to Ferrum College, Ferrum, VA. These collections have been displayed on site and are available for traveling exhibitions throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

"Frankly," Jack says, "I'm at a point in life where I'm ready to find a new home for the entire art collection. It's a lovely collection of timeless images featuring rural America at her finest."

During the summer of 2005 Jack and his wife Pat moved to a new location near Riverton, Wyoming. Jack is no longer printing. His lab is history. But his classic approach to the arts will live on for the enjoyment of future generations.

Artist's Statement
Before moving to Wyoming’s Wind River country in 1997, I spent almost forty years documenting the vanishing people and landscapes of the Appalachians. Mine is a poetic view of rural America, and I portray the land in a traditional and representational genre. Each of my museum-quality images is a projection of my artistry and my vision of the world.

After moving to Wyoming, I broadened my artistic skills, combining transparent oils with some of my silver images. The finished work of art is both a photograph and a painting. The western landscape, with its varied textures and hues, is naturally suited for this mixed-media technique. I worked in subtle, layered tones that are quite different from the options available in color photography. The image is mine from conception, to the camera and darkroom, and finally to the brush. Because the oil pigments I used will also endure indefinitely, my mixed media works, like my silver sulfide prints, should remain for the enjoyment of future generations.

The spring of 2005 represented a major turning point in my life. I printed my last silver sulfide image. It was a change that had slowly been in the making for several years, but became reality when I used the final sheet of my favorite paper. Classic papers such as these are no longer being made, and those that I had been using were preserved in a freezer for nearly twenty-five years. I still house a collection of my rare vintage and more recent images, and I make these originals available to collectors and museums.

Far from being a sad moment for me, I have headed off in another direction using the latest in digital technology. At age 72, it was time to put the film camera aside and take off on a new and exciting adventure. I now think Pixels rather than Silver Particles. But my view of the world around me has not changed. I still am inspired by the gentle, the noble and dignified, and the beautiful unfolding of life as I see it.

2008