Caldwell Snyder Gallery presents our first exhibition of photographs by Canadian- based photographer, Joshua Jensen-Nagle. Jensen-Nagle captures scenes of leisure from a distance, often from high above, transforming people on beaches or ski slopes into toy-like figures against sublime natural backdrops. His ongoing series “Endless Summer” shows people as colorful specks clustered on long stretches of sand, with green or blue bands of water edging the scene like abstract elements. His immersive, cinematic, large-scale photos invite viewers to lose themselves in the crowd and the striking landscape, sparking associations that might resemble the artist’s own memories of a “childhood spent on the shore... memories of never-ending days floating in the water, jumping waves.”
In the tradition of photographers like Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky, Jensen-Nagle’s images reveal arresting visual patterns in the everyday world and create dramatic shifts in perspective that show humans completely enveloped by their environment. Viewing photography as a “means to create rather than document a reality,” he has spent a decade traveling the globe in search of beachscapes dotted with bathers to turn into compelling images, often hanging out of helicopters to capture his birds-eye views.
Based in Toronto, Jensen-Nagle has mounted over fifty exhibitions in the last dozen years across North America, including at the Griffin Museum in Boston and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. He has placed his photographs in numerous private and corporate collections such as Target and Hilton Hotels, and has seen his work featured in a variety of publications, including Fashion and Harpers.