Jeff Graves was born in Belleville, IL in 1966. Since his childhood, Jeff has shown a serious inclination to the arts. His interest materialized when Jeff started to combine his creative abilities with his love for backpacking and the outdoors. Over the past twenty two years, he has honed his vision and pursued photography as an art. Jeff entered the Art Exhibition Scene in 2004 with a solo gallery exhibition and continues to show in galleries and photographic institutions. He has also been accepted into numerous juried art shows where he has received awards for photographic excellence.
Jeff’s depth of subject matter ranges from the simplistic rural landscapes of the eastern plains in Colorado to the complex abstractions of modern abandoned architectural structures. Whether it’s the serenity of a simple compositional balance or the celebration of a place or person provoked by a thought or a reaction of a memory, one thing shines thru, the uniqueness of Jeff’s vision which truly makes it his own.
“There is something that stirs deep inside me when I am seeing images and making them is like exercise for me. I feel the need to create in order to have a balance in life.”
Most of Jeff’s images are captured on film and are hand-developed using traditional darkroom processing techniques utilizing the silver gelatin print, as well as several hand applied processes (salt, platinum palladium, cyanotype, wet plate collodion and polymer gravure).
Jeff actively contributes to the Photographic Art Community by conducting demonstrations, teaching workshops and private one on one sessions.
Jeff’s images are held in numerous private collections throughout the United States and in Europe and have been featured in many institutions including the Center for Photographic Art, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Denver Art Museum and the Phoenix Art Museum.
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