Geir Jordahl portfolio was a 2023 Rfotofolio Work of Merit Selection.
“There are only pictures now – images of moments in the sphere of time that connect to everything. Circles complete the stories we make in our passing. Our world is round. Eyes, earth, sun, moon – all round, all connected. Perception is round. Life – death – rebirth all round. It is in these cycles that I have hope despite the darkness. With the sphere of time and the circle of life, death is overcome briefly in every image I make.” Geir Jordahl
Would you please tell us about yourself?
My life has always been a visual journey – a recurring sensual journey. By sensual, I mean all of the senses – tactile, aural, olfactory, as well as visual. From childhood, I smelled, touched, listened, and looked at everything. I was blessed with keen awareness from day one. My greatest awareness was always based on seeing but enhanced by the other senses. Picking up the northern moss in the tundra, holding it in my fingers, then smelling its earthiness – this is how I see. I would use this in my teaching career, encouraging students to fully experience the scene before photographing. One of my students created a self-portrait photograph of the southwest desert. This photograph of her standing on the edge of an escarpment within the grand vista was titled “See the Silence.” That embodies how I wanted my teaching to affect my students and how I want my photographs to impact my viewers,
I am a photographer, a curator and an educator. I am a collector of artwork, of cameras and of books. Just as all the senses enhance the experience of photographing, my collections enhance the development of my projects.
Who has had an influence on your creative process?
It seems so expected to say Ansel Adams, but attending his workshop when I was in college and just beginning in photography has been pivotal to my creative life. At the time, I had no money, and after I was accepted, Ansel and his team allowed me to pay in installments. I stayed at the Yosemite campground for the workshop and arrived with a Minolta 35mm camera. Still, Ansel was supportive and encouraging. To be with the amazing photographers Ansel gathered at the workshops, such as Barbara Crane, Todd Walker, Al Weber, and others, was a transformative experience. Most importantly, Ansel said two things to me that were essential in shaping my future. One was that the most important thing you have to decide is not what you are going to do. It is deciding all the things you are not going to do. The other thing he said was that the pictures you will make from this experience will not be made now, they may not be made next month or next year. This non-linearity of creation became a foundation for my process.
Another pivotal experience was my first in-depth photography course at the university. My professor, James Bailey, had worked with Minor White, living at his home and studio and assisting him for one year. Minor White was a mystic as well as a gifted photographer and along with Ansel Adams was a foundational creator of photographic education. Through James Bailey, I came to understand the essential importance of visual literacy in understanding our world. Not only did these experiences guide me into photography as an art form, but they also led me to explore photojournalism for the next three years working with the university newspaper and magazine. Eventually, all of these experiences shaped my work as a curator, educator, and creator.
Lastly, my greatest influence is my partner-in-life, Kate Jordahl, who established my belief in art as a path for life itself. Over the years, we have been co-teachers, editors, designers, photographers, and artists.
There are always many more great people who influence our lives—some more profound than others. One example is when Ruth Bernhard said to me, “Have the courage to crop—only you and I will know.” Or, in an insecure moment, being encouraged by Lou Stoumen, who said, “I have seen your work. I admire it greatly.” Moments such as these help reinforce the larger picture to keep us going.
Please tell us about an image (not your own) that has inspired you.
I have a collection of photographs hanging throughout the house to inspire me daily, including Elliott Erwitt, Linda Connor, Jerry Uelsmann, Sally Mann, Michael Kenna, Ruth Bernhard, Bill Owens and more. But primarily, cinema inspired my photography, particularly the cinemascope movies, which aligns with my desire to always see more. I can still see the vast expanse of the desert from the film “Lawrence of Arabia.” In other masterpieces of cinema, like “Citizen Kane,” a lifetime’s portfolio could be made from still frames stolen from the film. It takes my breath away. Cinematographer Greg Toland was a master of light shadow, perspective, and composition.
Is there an image that you wish you would have taken and can you still see it?
Most often, the image I wish I had made was the one that got away. This happens every day when I’m driving. I am always seeing photographs. The images that haunt me are the ones on the freeway where there is no legal or safe way to stop. This is why, whenever possible, I travel on the small roads and what William Least Heat-Moon called the “blue highways.”
Please tell us about the work you submitted to The Rfotofolio Call.
In developing “The Endless Sphere of Time,” I reviewed the work from fifteen years of spherical images. For the book, I chose a chapter-based open-ended narrative structure.
When making the photographs in this project, I had recurring reactions and feelings to the complexities of the day that would invade my picture-making on a subconscious level. As I was editing the photographs, these underlying ideas and influences would become conscious tectonic eruptions leading to my selections. I would then take these key images as guideposts to each chapter’s journey and pair them with a Rolf Jacobsen poem that complemented and synergized with that photo, creating the one plus one is three experience.
I continue working with Rolf Jacobsen’s work because his poetry is visual, and my photographs, at their best, are poetic. It is important to say these are not pictures illustrating text or poems explaining a photographic story. I want the viewer to be able to contemplate each individually and discover the connection between them. This process took years to evolve, with poems and images coming and going like a changing set list of music. And like music, my goal is that the viewer experience something new with each viewing.
How do you work through times when nothing seems to work?
In one word, move. Historically for me, it’s keep moving or perish. Driving some place with my cameras. Diving into a new project. This can lead to distractions, but it also breaks the spell of “nothing working.” Sometimes I feel like I could just get in the car and drive forever.
What part of image-making do you find the most rewarding?
Execution. When I’m actually making photographs and being in the world with the cameras, I am most happy. And there is the flip side of the coin — a finished product is exciting. I love the process, and I can’t stand it. The joy is at the beginning, and the joy is at the end. For me, it is not the middle and not the follow-through. This can be challenging.
What tools have you found essential in the making of your work?
My early work was made with a variety of panoramic cameras, particularly the Widelux. In “San Joaquin: River of Spirit,” I used these tools to explore the horizontal landscape. Then, in “Searching for True North,” I used panoramic cameras vertically to expand my vision. Still, I found myself wanting to see more. In 2009, I purchased an early 1970s Nikor Fisheye 8mm lens from a Vietnam veteran journalist. I then began the work that became “The Circle of Life” and “The Endless Sphere of Time.”
For this project, as in all of my projects, I use a variety of lenses and cameras. I explore the tools to create my vision for each image and then edit and develop the work to have them speak to each other. The proper instrument is essential to create lasting work that speaks to my ideas.
Is there something in photography that you would like to try in the future?
Currently, I am thinking about various ways to present the work. I have been intrigued by translucent metallic coatings and gilded images. I am looking at round Victorian frames with bubble glass. I want a different way of presentation to realize the work in new ways. The book is my current favorite method of sharing my images and my sequences. I want to continue to expand this as a way of presenting work.
I am always open to new ideas and experiences. Staying receptive is essential to my process.
How does your art affect the way you see the world?
When I am traveling, I often pull over and stop because I caught something out of the side of my eye. I have always been aware of edges in my photographs. I perceive edges everywhere. Up, down, sides. Nothing is straight ahead for me. This ties to all the work I’ve done with the panoramic cameras, both vertical and horizontal. That’s always been about this larger view. The circle expands that and is in harmony with this larger view. The spherical lens really does have a different feeling from the panoramic camera. There’s stability in both the horizontal and vertical panoramas. The circles tend to always be swirling. There is an edge as soon as you put a corner onto something. Containment happens. The circle photographs are an attempt to eliminate containment.
What’s on the horizon?
Currently, completing and printing “The Endless Sphere of Time” is the first thing on the horizon. It is the realization of so many years of photographing and designing. The Kickstarter is open, and we are excited to move forward.
We are working on a book project with Oliver Klink. We designed and edited his award-winning “Cultures in Transition” and are excited to collaborate with him on his book of horses from around the world, currently titled “Poetry in Motion.”
Kate will be retiring from college teaching in June, and we are beginning to plan travels and joint book projects.
It is a time of transition and thoughtfulness.
Thank you Geir
To learn more about the work of Geir Jordahl please click on his name.
