Jonathan Sherrill
Leverett is full of stories about the wildlife around us. Discussions about plants and animals percolate through our community. Foxes, bobcats, turkeys, moose, exotic fungi, orchids, black gum and chestnut trees, chestnut-sided warblers, great-horned owls... the list could consume a lifetime. We are rich in geological, natural and human history. Still today we are in the midst of historical changes in the same arenas of the environment. The weather seems wholly unpredictable; at the same time as the forest slowly reclaims the cellar holes and roads of settlers gone west, it is eaten away by new development; the beavers are building dams that in turn build little worlds where life bursts forth in its myriad forms; and the hills slowly and without ceremony wear away to smaller versions of themselves. We live with change going on around us every minute.
We live also with the wild things that, despite our observations and stories, exist mostly in a hidden world. From the imperial great horned owl and the imperious black bear to the impish field mouse, they all go about their lives listening to their own rhythms and inner voices. Most of my work involves the world out there--in the forest, swamps, fields and streams. Some of my new work looks inward and could be called dreamscapes but I call them SomniGrams. These new works blend images of the natural world to create pictures that might reveal hidden thoughts or truths about our world.
In imaging nature, I find the process to be as important as the final print. I have spent many hours in the woods, swamps, and fields waiting for a certain slant of light, a particular animal to reveal itself in an interesting way or a new plant to catch my attention. I find it significant that we have the opportunities to find, locally and regionally, some of the most extraordinary plant and animal life that one could imagine. There is much beauty in the Northeast and much worth saving. For that reason, we as a species needs to focus on preserving other species' habitats for living, corridors for traveling and wetlands for water and water purity.
Bio of Jonathan Sherrill
I have been photographing for many years; through several careers and then professionally for the past eighteen years. My earliest image dates from second grade; the most recent from this year. Photojournalism is in my past as is commercial work and magazine illustration. Today, I concentrate on the flora and fauna of the Northeast and environmental images; the human or the natural and where they coalesce or collide. I am now fully involved with the digital world as far as photography is concerned. While some of the images I create come from film, they all wind up as digital files and are printed onto high-quality watercolor paper using a fine art inkjet printer. As a result of this phenomenon I have become more computer literate than I ever anticipated and I have also learned more about color, light and design than I would have imagined. I live in Leverett and many of these images are from there and nearby towns.
I hope you enjoy these images.
