KENT WISNER PHOTOGRAPHY
Biography
Kent Wisner is an American photographic artist. Raised as an only child of a widowed working mother, his formal education is in foreign languages, international relations, and law. Wisner's images are rooted in the precarity of life's journey, and the reciprocal attempt to find a way forward and to create order in a tangled world. Most often these themes are manifest in landscapes, still life, and editorial subject matter. His work has appeared in a variety of American galleries, magazines and books, and has received awards in international juried photo competitions. Wisner currently lives in San Francisco, California.
Artist Statement:
I see life's journey as a series of delicate alliances between light and dark, chaos and order, and the fleeting and the permanent. I use photography both as a conscious chronicle of experience and an illumination of subtext. I have traveled around the world in my life, seeking to expand my sense of possibility from a somewhat solitary and localized latch-key upbringing. I've used this travel to make decorative images and to create contemplative work about stability competing with uncertainty, what is found and what is constructed in life. As travel ceased in the wake of a global pandemic, I explored the world in my literal and figurative backyard in greater depth.
I learned to print analog photographs before I learned to operate a camera. My first darkroom experience rang a bell I still hear today, even in digital capture and editing methods. While I enjoy presenting my work as projected images on line, the physical print is where I see colors come alive and shadows present their mystery. I print using archival color and Platinum/Palladium monochrome processes to leave behind more permanent traces.
Gallery Exhibitions
Monochrome 2022, PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary (May 2022)
The Magic of Light, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, selected by juror Ann Jastrab, for Online Exhibition (March 2022).
Black and White 2022, Black Box Gallery, Portland, OR (February 2022)
INPrint Group Show, Photo Methode Gallery, Austin TX (2017)
Grotteschi | Exploring Hieronymus Bosch, Carmel Visual Arts Center (2015)
Stories and Secrets, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, selected by jurors Kirsten Hoving and Emma Powell, for Online Exhibition (2015)
Picturish Gallery, Berkeley, CA (2011)
SomArts Gallery, San Francisco (2009)
ArtistXchange Gallery, San Francisco
CityArt Gallery, San Francisco
Hotel des Arts, San Francisco
START/Soma Gallery, San Francisco
San Francisco City Hall
SF Black & White Gallery, San Francisco
Awards
2023 Black & White Spider Awards, 3 Nominee Awards in Nature, Still Life, and People Categories
2022 International Color Awards, 1 Nomination in Nature Category
2022 Black & White Spider Awards, 1 Nominee Award in Photojournalism Category
2021 International Color Awards, 2 Nominations, one each in Nature and Architecture Categories
2021 Black & White Spider Awards, 3 Nominee Awards, one each in Fine Art, Architectural and Aerial Categories
2021 PX3 Prix de la Photographie PX3, 2 Honorable Mentions in Press/Travel/Tourism, Professional Category
2019 International Color Awards, Nomination, Nude, Disruptive I
2018 Black & White Spider Awards, 1st Place Architectural Category
2018 International Color Awards, 3rd Place Honor of Distinction, Nude, and 2 Nominations, in Nature and Abstract Categories
2017 Black & White Spider Awards Honorable Mention Nude, and Nominee Abstract Categories
2016 Black & White Spider Awards Honorable Mention Nude, and Nominee in Nude, Nature and Architectural Categories
2016 PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris Honorable Mention in Fine Art Nude Category
2016 International Photography Awards, Los Angeles, CA, Honorable Mentions in Nature (Sunset), Fine Art (Landscape) and Fine Art (Other) categories
2016 International Color Awards: Nominee in Silhouette | Silhouette on Mt Etna
2015 Black & White Spider Awards Nominee in Fine Art
2015 International Photography Awards 6 Honorable Mentions in Fine Art Nudes and 1 Honorable Mention in Still Life
2015 PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris Honorable Mention in Nature/Sky and Travel Categories.
2015 International Color Awards: 3rd Place - Honor of Distinction in Still Life | Precarious and Nominee in Still Life | Purples
2011, PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris, 1 Honorable Mention Award, and several Official Selections, in the Fine Art category, non-professional
2008 International Photography Awards competition, Los Angeles, CA, 1 Honorable Mention Award, in the category of Travel/Tourism.
2008 Prix de Photographie Paris, 3 Honorable Mentions in the Fine Art category, non-professional
2006 International Photography Awards competition, Los Angeles, CA, 6 Honorable Mention Awards, in the categories of abstract, interiors, still life, self-portrait, and portrait (twice).
2005 International Photography Awards competition, Los Angeles, CA, 3 Honorable Mention Awards, in the categories of fine art nude (twice) and portrait.