© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Snow-white Mountain, California, 2019

What about the places where you have grown up. Any memories?

Matthew Jessie (MJ): I lived the entirety of the first thirty years of my life in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee. I was lucky enough to grow up surrounded by mountainous forests and was fortunate enough to spend lots of time exploring them in solitude from around the age of five. To me, it is interesting to see now, just how much that part of my childhood informed my current photographic practice. I pretty much do the same thing as I did then, but with a camera.

What about photography, when did you step into the visual world?

MJ: I didn’t begin photographing in any serious way until around 2008. During that summer I worked as a timeshare salesperson in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Whenever I had free time, I would spend it camping, hiking, and exploring the Smokies, and these experiences created within me a drive to help, in some way, environmental conservation. With a new sense of direction, I went back to college the following semester, enrolling in forestry and photography courses, and that is where my interests in photography and environmentalism really solidified.

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Rock in Tree Short Mountain, Tennessee, 2019

How do you cope with fast interconnections and instant sharing? How this is affecting your practice?

MJ: I will be completely honest and say that while there are always two sides of a coin, it is sometimes hard for me to see the positive aspects of today’s fast interconnections and availability for instant sharing, outweighing their negative aspects. I may admittedly be a bit cynical, but in my opinion, these platforms have, to a lesser or greater extent, progressively helped to homogenize the medium of photography, to champion a select few practitioners, and to create what I see as a, at least at times, toxic environment. I do, however, see and acknowledge positive aspects of today’s fast interconnections and availability for instant sharing and I have recently come to the realization that the work of an artist will never please, or be appealing to everyone. I just really hope that when people see my work, it gives them another reason to care about the earth, that’s really my biggest aspiration for it.

You quoted “Every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind, and that state of the mind can only be described by presenting that natural appearance as its picture.” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. How would you describe your approach to the medium?

MJ: I wouldn’t say that this quote sums up my entire approach to the medium of photography, but it does, in many ways, poetically describe my working approach to Temporal Nature. While the images do not visually depict humans in any sort of direct way, I consider it to be of the most “human” work I have created, at least on an emotive level. Early on in the development of the series, I began heavily riffing on Emerson’s quote because I had already come to a similar understanding through practicing photography, and from spending time in the wilderness. There are forms, moments, experiences, etc. that can be found and had in nature and wilderness, that I truly believe do visually describe different states of the human mind in ways that other subject matter cannot do, at least as effectively.

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Gray Bats, Indian Cave, Tennessee, 2019

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Anthropomorphic cave formation, Mogollon Rim, Arizona, 2018

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', From Browns Peak, Mazatzal mountains, Arizona, 2019

Your series Temporal Nature was shortlisted for Urbanautica Institute Awards 2020. Can you briefly introduce what motivated you to start this project?

MJ: I began creating images for Temporal Nature in August of 2018, one and a half years into the three-year MFA program at Arizona State University. The whole project began as a sort of reaction to and dissatisfaction with the work I had made up to that point, and to the work that I feel is all too prevalent today. During my time at ASU, from 2017-2020, I had the great privilege of working with Bill Jenkins, the man who, in 1975, curated the New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape show at the George Eastman House, and who subsequently started the New Topographics movement that is still alive and well today. Up to the point of when I began creating images for Temporal Nature, my work was more aligned with the New Topographics movement than anything else, and in many ways, I was no longer satisfied with this way of working and sought to change my practice. That moment came in August of 2018 when the United States and North Korea were threatening nuclear war. After weeks of seeing and hearing about this news on every television and radio, I decided that if nuclear war really did break out at that time, I would much rather watch it coming from the most remote, seldom-visited, seemingly wild places that remain, as opposed to listening to and watching news outlets exploiting and exaggerating the fear of a hypothetical situation that thankfully never came to fruition, at least not yet. After showing Bill several of the early images for this work, he told me that the New Topographics show was a reaction to the work of Ansel Adams, Elliot Porter, and the like, and that at that time, in 1975, the medium needed to expand beyond those artist’s belief that natural landscapes and elements were the most important and worthy subject matter. Bill also told me that, in his opinion, the New Topographics movement had run its course years ago and that now was the time to react to it and do something different, and to keep going in the direction I was heading. I have continued the work, and plan on continuing it for many years. Thus far I have climbed over one hundred mountains in Arizona, California, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia, I have hiked and bushwhacked thousands of miles through densely vegetated forests and across vast stretches of desert, all to create images that share my experiences and visualize reasons to care about the environmental threats we continue to face today. I love what I do, and I am grateful for every opportunity I have been given to get to this point.

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Shadow of a cloud, Superstition Mountains, Arizona, 2020

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', From Signal Peak, Kofa Mountains, Arizona, 2019

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Parker- Canyon, Sierra Ancha, Arizona, 2018

What does Anthropocene mean for you? How important is it to face these challenges and urgencies within your creative work?

MJ: To me, the Anthropocene means that we, as collective humanity, messed up big time. We seemingly, blindly followed the wrong path for the wrong reasons for too long. I am, however, hopeful and remain optimistic that we still have a chance to right some of these wrongs, and I feel as if this hope comes through many of the images in this series. The more time I spend making this work, the more the feelings of urgency and importance to address these challenges through my creative work, grow. I am not a scientist. I am an artist. And as an artist, I have certain expectations for my work and I am most satisfied when I feel that my personal need to photograph, my demand for technical proficiency, and my desire to create work that, in some ways, gives back to society, have been met. The images from Temporal Nature balance all these expectations and offer viewers reasons to care about climate change in a way that purely scientific data can’t.

You wrote, «Traversing in solitude into remote landscapes, often for miles, I search for ways to create visual interpretations of my experiences in the land, engaging with the non-human world in ways that bridge a perceived lack of connection between man and nature.» All this makes me think that your approach to this project is a slow dive. An attempt to understand the "wilderness" dimension. How important is the process? How would you describe your methodology?

MJ: My approach to this work is a dichotomy of Zen-like patience and frantic hurriedness. The patience comes in the form of my proposed longevity of the work and from waiting for photographically right moments when in the field. The frantic hurriedness comes in the form of my desire to experience as much wilderness as I can, before I am unable to do so any longer. Another one of my mentors from grad school, Julie Anand, once said that I have a stronger sense of my own mortality than anyone she had ever met. I had never thought of my photographic practice in that way, but I agree with her observation because practically all I do, other than teaching, is researching, or trekking to make work because I know that one day I won’t be here to do so. My methodology involves tons of research, tons of exercise to be able to safely do what I do when in the wilderness, tons of walking, hiking, climbing, and spelunking, as well as tons of time editing and making prints of the images. 

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Deadmans falls, Mazatzal Mountains, Arizona, 2019

You use a 4x5 view large camera, why?

MJ: I don’t use a View Camera anymore, but I did for the greater part of a decade. When I first began using a large format camera, it completely changed my way of approaching the medium of photography. The innate process of using it really got me to think of every aspect within the scenes I would photograph with it. Funny enough though, I now use a high-resolution digital camera and began doing so when I first thought about starting this body of work. I had this sort of epiphany and realized that I am not concerned with the camera I use to make an image. When I see an image that moves me, it does so in a way that transcends the process. Bill Jenkins once told me that when you buy a new house, you don’t go in and think of what kind of nail gun was used to assemble the walls. To me, it’s the same thing with photography, I’m no longer concerned with the camera that is used to create images. With that said, I do have certain preferences and expectations that dictate the cameras I personally use. I value high-resolution files, tack-sharp lenses, and the ability to print highly detailed, large prints. Until the time I started this series, the only thing I could afford, that checked all the boxes for all my preferences was a 4x5 view camera. I guess that in many ways, I waited to purchase a digital camera until there was a somewhat affordable model that also checked the same boxes. Since transitioning, I haven’t felt any desire to use film, and prefer utilizing a digital camera now. I now use the time I would have used for developing film, scanning it, and then dust spotting the scans, on researching for my trips and treks for Temporal Nature.

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Superstition Peak, Superstition Mountains, Arizona, 2019

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Enterance Circle Park Cave, Tennessee, 2019

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Cave Formation, Indian Cave, Tennessee, 2019

How important is it for you to leave a trace, an interpretation?

MJ: With this work, some of the images are more about the trace and some are more about the transformation, but I think that altogether there is a healthy balance of the two. I really enjoy leaving room for the viewer to make their own interpretations, but striking that balance is what seems to be most important to me with this work.

I have always thought that the desert is something primordial, ineffable because it escapes categories. What did you learn from the desert and how difficult was it to capture it in images?

MJ: I have learned, and continue to learn, so much from the desert. Both about the desert as its own entity, and about myself as a human. I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen a lot of remote territory in the American portion of the Sonoran Desert, and from all of my experiences, I would say that perseverance, resiliency, and humbleness are the main things that I have learned from the desert. I really do push myself when I am out there, and I have learned so much about myself through those experiences. As far as the difficulty of capturing it in images, my way of working is very intuitive, and I tend to explore particular regions and areas slowly, for a lengthy amount of time. This allows me to understand each place and to be receptive to its peculiarities, beauties, rhythms, individual characters and characteristics, and other qualities that are evident in the images.

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Eagletail Peak, Eagletail Mountains, Arizona, 2020

© Matthew Jessie, from the series 'Temporal Nature', Anthropomorphic saguaro, Bates Mountains, Arizona, 2019

Matthew Jessie (personal website)