Atlanta-based photographer and master printer John Dean’s “Cool Clear Hydrosphere,” describes in still life form, the mystery of the most precious and powerful life force on the planet, water, the element that makes all terrestrial life and the landscape possible.
The title of this series comes from a popular song from the 1930’s written by the cowboy singer Bob Nolan. The song describes the journey of a man and his mule across a desert, and a mirage they experience together. It is a song about a traveler wondering when faced with thirst, how he and his species fit into the natural order of things. The theme is contemporary, ancient, and universal.
All of the major cultures of the world have a place in the history of their visual arts for the theme of water and the container vessel (a symbol of the body, the Earth and regeneration) as seen in paintings, sculpture, fountains and architecture. They are used as metaphors for the forces of life, moving in and out of containment. Water is the ultimate shape shifter.
Scientific inquiry has uncovered a lot about terrestrial water, such as the idea that most of it is trapped in rock under the Earth’s surface, and that it came here most likely all at once, and the amount of it never increases or decreases. But there is even more that is really speculative, like, where it came from and when – from comets? “To me the closest thing to real magic is water,” says John. “If you photograph the landscape, eventually it will confront you.”
We are witnessing major transformations of our landscape: transformations of cultural geography in regard to the movement of people across the globe, as well as the physical transformations brought by drought and flood. The dynamic presence of water, or extreme lack of it, is part of the daily news.
“The reality of major climate change and its effects of focusing our attention on the preciousness of natural resources is defining the era we inhabit, in a big way, as it has for cultures before us,” says John. “Our mysterious relationship to the landscape has once again become central to our own mythology. You don’t have to use helicopters, drones, and satellites to see that; it is right there in your own subconscious, where it has always been.”
"Watermill Express," pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Dry Creek Bed, Piedras Marcadas, New Mexico," pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"South Pole," carbon pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Mediterranean," carbon pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Latin America," carbon pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"North America," carbon pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Asia," carbon pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Earth to Atmosphere," carbon pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Containment," carbon pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Atmospheric Reflection," pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Measurement, Truth or Consequences," pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Elephant Butte, NM," pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Cool Clear Water," pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Light Pool," pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Marshland, Jekyll Island, GA," pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Biosphere," pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Sunset, White Sands, NM," pigment inkjet print on cotton media
"Emerging Rainstorm, Santa Fe, NM," pigment inkjet print on cotton media
John Dean has a BFA in Art Photography and Art History, from the University of Arizona and an MFA in art photography from Tyler School of Art of Temple University. John’s work is represented in the collections of The Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, the Museum Of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Yale University rare prints collection, the Kling architectural photography collection Philadelphia, the San Francisco Camerawork artist's book collection, Clarence John Laughlin’s personal collection, and the Greenberg Traurig and Bunnen Collections, among others.
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