JACOB BOND HESSLER | Sanctuary
March 1 – April 27, 2024
Jacob Bond Hessler
Cloud Anthem
Photograph on aluminum
40h x 60w in
Jacob Bond Hessler
Into the Hush
Photograph on aluminum
40" x 60"
Jacob Bond Hessler
Equilibrium
Photograph on aluminum
40" x 60"
Jacob Bond Hessler
Brave
Photograph on aluminum
40" x 60"
Jacob Bond Hessler
Amongst Giants
Photograph on aluminum
40" x 60"
Jacob Bond Hessler
Little River
Photograph on aluminum
40" x 60"
Jacob Bond Hessler
Sticks and Stone
Photograph on aluminum
40" x 60"
Jacob Bond Hessler
Rio Grande River, New Mexico
Photograph on aluminum
40h x 60w in
Jacob Bond Hessler
Election Year
Photograph on aluminum
40h x 60w in
Jacob Bond Hessler
Navajo Nation, Eastern Arizona
Photograph on aluminum
40h x 60w in
Jacob Bond Hessler
Hallandale Beach, Florida
Photograph on aluminum
40h x 60w in
Jacob Bond Hessler
View from Angel Island, California
Photograph on aluminum
40h x 60w in
Jacob Bond Hessler
Sunken Shed
Photograph on aluminum
40" x 60"
Jacob Bond Hessler
The Rock
Photograph on Aluminum
40h x 60w in
Jacob Bond Hessler
Red Train, 5/7
Photograph on Aluminum
40h x 60w in
Jacob Bond Hessler
Flock of Birds Over Water, 1/7
Photograph on Aluminum
30h x 40w in
"As the prospect of a controversial wall looms on the U.S.-Mexican border, as immigrants and refugees are caught in an ever-expanding limbo, and as ICE stakes out courtrooms, it is unsurprising that American writers and artists have begun incorporating the concepts of “borders” and “boundaries” into their work. For their collaborative project Boundaries, on view at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, photographer Jacob Bond Hessler and poet Richard Blanco address the subject from a range of angles, using handsome large-scale color prints and poignant words.
The show consists of nine photograph-poem pairings. For the most part, Blanco’s poems were prompted by Hessler’s photographs, but they are not ekphrastic. There are no direct descriptive references to the images, although here and there the connection is made tangible. Rather, the poems run parallel to the photographs, often adding a narrative to what is a wide-open image."
Boundaries by Jacob Hessler and Richard Blanco has been featured in an article in the Portland Press Herald. The exhibition is currently on view at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) in Rockland. Bob Keyes writes, "It's a quiet, reflective exhibition that asks viewers to consider the boundaries that divide us by race, gender, class and other ways. As artists, the two attempt to tear down barriers to create understanding, empathy and compassion."
This exhibition will combine poems by poet laureate Richard Blanco with the artwork of photographer Jacob Hessler in order to explore the physical, imagined, and psychological boundary lines – both historic and current that have plagued our American Society. Although the world continues to move its way towards being boundary-less with advances in technology (air travel/social media/etc.), our nation continues to feel more and more polarized, repeating our past mistakes and drawing lines in the sand with an us vs. them mentality.
Across this North American continent, lie both visible and invisible boundaries.
Jacob and Alissa Hessler are a husband-and-wife creative team who run a boutique creative studio in the wilds of coastal Maine while teaching modern landscape photography around the United States. B&H Photo Video recently talked to the pair to get their thoughts on building a creative community.
Challenge yourself to see Maine with a fresh perspective.
Maine has long been a photographer’s paradise. From season to season, the landscapes change dramatically and offer many visual delights. This workshop will challenge photographers to see their environment through fresh eyes, using Maine as the backdrop. We will look beyond clichés, extract the tranquility and discover exciting new ways to photograph the world around us.
Jacob Bond Hessler is a contemporary fine art photographer, known for his expansive and meditative landscapes. Hessler’s work has explored rising seas, industrialized farming, borders and boundaries, invasive species, extinction, and more broadly, mankind's relationship with, and impact on, the natural world. His keen eye and use of scale connects viewers with the vastness of the human experience.
Hessler is a graduate of the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, and pursued his master’s degree in graphic design at Parsons, The New School for Design. He worked in New York as a commercial photographer and art director from 2006-2011.
In 2011, Hessler left New York and moved back to his childhood hometown in Mid Coast, Maine to focus on his fine art landscape photography.
In 2017, Hessler released Boundaries, a limited-edition fine-press book of photographs and poetry in collaboration with 2013 presidential inaugural poet Richard Blanco (Two Ponds Press). The original photographs and poems from Boundaries have been exhibited at Coral Gables Museum, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, and the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.
THE QUIET LANDSCAPE, Maine Media Workshops, Rockport, Maine, June 26th – July 2nd, 2016
THE CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE, Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 10th – 15th, 2016
THE QUIET LANDSCAPE, Maine Media Workshops, Rockport, Maine, September 18th – 24th, 2016
THE MODERN LANDSCAPE, Madeline Island School of the Arts, Lake Superior, Wisconsin, October 2nd – 6th, 2016