“Small Places” by Jim Hill | Photographic Performance GalleryTalk

The Photographic Performance was created to feature the works of artist with completed bodies of work and a strong narrative. Jim Hill’s exhibition “Small Places“ is the third of four performances to be exhibited during Act II 2024. Jim’s exhibition is discussed in this GalleryTalk.

Artist Statement

small places explores
the American heartland
rural nights haunt me

the nights are lonely
darkness is isolation
shadows hide the past

the silos of grain
dominate rural night skies
the abundance looms

small midwestern towns
producing the food we eat
struggle to survive

businesses fail
farms are consolidating
kids leave forever

not many people
everyone knows everyone
but loneliness lurks

miles to anywhere
silence echoes in my head
a sea of corn waves

the feelings come back
I think I do understand
I used to live here

I meet the locals
we talk and boundaries ease
later I bring prints

Jim Hill, 2024

Bio

Jim Hill is a Chicago based photographer who is focused on photographing the world at night. Jim Hill was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area  and graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Madison with a degree in geology. After living in a small town in Wisconsin dairy country for eight years Jim moved to the Chicago area and has lived there for over 30 years.

Following an international career as a groundwater geologist, Jim is now focusing his time and energy on photography. Jim participated in the 2021 Chico Review. Jim’s work has been in 17 juried gallery shows or photo festivals. Jim’s ongoing series “Small Places” was featured in Lenscratch and was also a 2023 Critical Mass finalist and top 50 in Critical Mass 2024.

Directors’ Statement

With his camera, Jim Hill, has taken small town presence and architecture, asking the assistance of night, and elevated it to beautiful documentary art. His images are both instructive and evocative. They remind or inform us of a rural, small-town way of life that is slowly disappearing, yet simultaneously still alive.

The citizens of the towns are not visible in his images — it’s late night or early morning. This allows the viewer to connect more directly with the built environment without the distraction of pondering on the patron entering the bar or parishioners in conversation in front of the church. There is a certainty to this. We, the viewers, instinctively, subconsciously know they are asleep in bed or watching late night television or sitting at the kitchen table doing their taxes. If the images were taken during the day we would worry — where is everyone, what has happened?

Jim has a very good eye for the importance of the subtleties of color and light in the creation of this work — avoiding the alluring gregariousness of bright reds and blues, choosing subtlety instead — with accents, small pops of bright color that are natural to the night.

We want to congratulate and thank Jim for submitting this beautiful work.

Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully
November, 2024

website: jimhill.com
instagram @jahill3photo

link to online exhibition

exhibition catalogue