“Breathers” is an emotional portrait, a near-typology of Pacific Northwest trees and their relationship to the developing landscape of my late mother-in-law’s early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. They push upward and hover over homes, set against skies that isolate them like studio backdrops. The holes in their branches and leaves mimic gaps in cognition and metaphoric holes left in the brain. They have seen and heard everything and hang – breathing – through it all. This work processes a disease that has claimed a rapidly vanishing memory, and the toll it’s taken on our family. In this context, the trees serve as listeners, breathers, and emotional guardians that have witnessed trauma and change.
Jon Feinstein is a Jewish photographer, curator, and writer, the co-founder of Humble Arts Foundation. Jon has curated countless exhibitions over 15+ years at galleries and institutions including Photoville; Blue Sky Gallery, PDX; The Ogden Museum in New Orleans for PhotoNola; Glassbox and Photographic Center Northwest Seattle; Colorado Photographic Arts Center; and Barclays Arena in Brooklyn, NY for ArtBridge. Jon’s projects have been featured in Aperture, NY Times, BBC, VICE, The New Yorker, Hyperallergic, and Feature Shoot, and he’s contributed to VICE, Hyperallergic, Aperture, Photograph, TIME, Slate, GOOD, Daylight, Adobe, and PDN.
Most recently, Jon is a recipient of the 2019 BlueSky Curatorial Prize and the 2021 Peter S. Reed Foundation artist grant.
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