Jim Sidinger: About The Artist

Jim has pursued “Independent Studies” in photography for over 25 years.  While his formal training was in Mathematics and Physics (BS/MS), he has forwarded his skills in photography through years of constant practice, readings and involvement in workshops with acknowledged masters in the field such as Morley Baer, Michael Kenna, Howard Bond and Jay Dusard.

He describes his photographic style as “Visual Zen” whereby simplicity in line and form, delicately applied in symmetric / asymmetric patterns, are used to  invoke complex reactions and feelings on the part of the viewer. 

Born in Chicago, Illinois (1947), he moved to his present home near Denver, Colorado in his early 30’s.  Since then, his photography has been strongly influenced by the landscape of the American West which is the subject of much of his photography.  His favorite landscape subjects are the American Great Plains and Desert West.

 While the bulk of his work has been the photography of the landscape, he has worked on other projects such as his 2002 book “Eternal Companions, Faces of the Père Lachaise”.  This book has resulted in rich visual images of his subjects – the statuary and bas reliefs of the famous Paris cemetery.  In addition to the Père Lachaise images, Jim’s current projects include a visual interpretation of Fort Point, a pre-Civil War fort in San Francisco, California and an ongoing, multi-year project documenting the landscape of the Great Plains of Colorado.

Jim's work has been in numerous gallery shows and juried exhibitions; also published in several books including Andy Miller’s 1995 “An Unkindness of Ravens”.

He works almost exclusively in black & white, large format film photography (non-digital).  He does all of his own traditional (chemical) darkroom work as well as the matting & framing of his prints so that he can control the quality of the entire process from start to finish.