Press Release
January 8, 2010

J W Johnston Takes 1st Place in Photography in WSKG's Art-In-Motion Competition and Tour

Fine art photographer and educator JW Johnston was awarded first prize in the photography category of public television station WSKG’s 2010 Art in Motion Competition and Tour.
Johnston’s prize-winning print “Center of the Universe” (the image on this website’s home page) is included in the Art in Motion collection of regional artists’ work. The collection will be showcased in a 6-city art tour in the spring throughout the WSKG 21-county viewing area. Destinations include Cooperstown, Ithaca, Corning, Hornell, Mansfield, Pa., with the tour culminating in Binghamton, NY, at Anam Cara Gallery, June 4-6.
Work will be sold during the tour to benefit WSKG, but the collection will stay intact for the tour’s duration.

WSKG production crews will visit Johnston and all the top-prize winning artists at their studios and produce a program featuring the artists and their work.
You can see all the work in the show at the WSKG website. Visit www.wskg.org and click on the Art in Motion link
Johnston’s work is always on exhibit at Orazio Salati Gallery II in Binghamton. He is a member of the Broome Community College Art and Design Faculty. He teaches photography courses for the BCC Continuing Education department as well. Johnston conducts group and private photography workshops through the Big Tent Cultural Center in Whitney Point, NY. He is currently reviewing proposals for commissions.
Press Release
August 11, 2008
Contact: Orazio Salati (607) 772-6725
OR
J W Johnston (607) 237-4951
 
Orazio Salati Gallery Hosts J W Johnston’s First Solo Exhibition in Four Years
Orazio Salati Studio and Gallery is very pleased to announce Transcendence: Photographing the Unseen, New and Reconsidered Work by local artist and educator J W Johnston. Opening reception is Friday, September 5 from 6-9 p.m. The exhibition continues through Saturday, November 1. Orazio Salati Studio and Gallery is located in downtown Binghamton, NY, at 205 State Street.
The exhibition is Johnston’s first solo show in four years and marks another milestone in his “second career”. Since moving back to his hometown of Whitney Point in 2003, Johnston has been reconnecting with and photographing what he describes as the “mysterious and seductive” landscape of the Southern Tier. The result is an exhibition that Johnston calls his “most personal and experimental work to date”.
Ten years ago, after nearly 20 years in commercial and public radio – as a reporter, editor and news director – at local and national levels – he quit. He started working as a photographer’s assistant in Washington, DC, to learn the business and pay the bills. He taught himself large format photography. Johnston camped and hiked throughout Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. His destination was always one of the park’s waterfalls. It was a way to learn the park and how to use his second-hand Toyo 45A-II camera. His work was shown at several DC-area venues including the Washington Center for Photography and the Ralls Collection.
Shortly after moving back to Whitney Point, the Shenandoah Waterfalls series premiered as Johnston’s first solo exhibition at Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Binghamton, in September 2004.
Johnston’s latest work represents a homecoming, but it’s also a departure.
“I continue photographing with my large format field camera and I’m still using film. It is a slow, contemplative, spiritual process,” Johnston writes in his Artist’s Statement for the new show. But he’s also doing more work with his digital Single Lens Reflex.
Digital imaging “fosters exploration,” writes Johnston, “And that fosters growth.”
Johnston’s homecoming continues and extends to Broome Community College in Binghamton. He received an Associates degree in Liberal Arts “a long time ago.” And now he teaches both credit and Continuing Education photography courses at his alma mater, something he clearly loves.
“Every day I’m in the classroom or the lab or in the field, something happens which reminds me how much I enjoy teaching,” says Johnston. “It’s a thrill to see a student’s growth. When it happens I know I’m doing something that matters.”
Johnston’s work is also part of a continuing exhibition in Gallery II at Orazio Salati Studio and Gallery. His images are in a growing number of private and institutional collections from Florida to New York, including the Broome Community College Foundation.
Johnston also conducts his own independent, intensive group and individual workshops. He is now accepting commissions.
“I photograph the natural landscape because I must, “ Johnston writes in his artist’s statement. “This process – this meditation – takes me outside of myself and brings me closer to the light, colors, textures, forms, rhythms or even the smells of the natural world. I breathe in the beauty, absorb it. And the beauty absorbs me. There is no longer a sense of separation. I lose myself. And find myself again. It is serene exhilaration.“
Such moments are the subject of Transcendence: Photographing the Unseen, New and Reconsidered Work. The exhibition opens on First Friday, September 5, at Orazio Salati Studio and Gallery, 205 State Street and runs through November 1. The gallery is also open Saturday, 11 AM to 3 PM and by appointment. For more information, contact Orazio Salati or J W Johnston.
An Evening with J W Johnston
The Broome Community College Center for Continuing Education presents “An Evening with J W Johnston”, Friday, October 17, from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. at the Orazio Salati Studio and Gallery in Binghamton, NY, as part of its Fall 2008 line-up of events and classes.
Here is a portion of the catalog description:
“Artist and educator J W Johnston invites you to a personal and unhurried evening of fine art photography that fascinates and inspires. During the final major event of Johnston’s two-month solo exhibition (Transcendence: Photographing the Unseen, New and Reconsidered Work) at the respected and popular Orazio Salati Studio and Gallery in Binghamton, NY, he discusses the technical, aesthetic and spiritual aspects of his work as well as the importance of natural beauty in our lives.
There is plenty of time to linger and enjoy the photography. Abstract or straight ahead, intimate or grand, color or black-and-white, Johnston’s work is described as peaceful, powerful and always beautiful.
Johnston’s work has been exhibited in galleries in Greater Binghamton, Albany, NY, and Washington, DC. His images are found in a growing number of private and institutional collections up and down the East Coast, from Florida to New York.
If you’ve never seen his work there is no better time. Enjoy wine and cheese, good conversation and wonderful photography. Bring a portable chair to the program. Meet at Orazio Salati Studio and Gallery, second floor, 205 State Street, Binghamton.”
The cost is $25.00. For more information or to register for An Evening with J W Johnston, contact the BCC Center for Continuing Education at 607-778-5012. The course listing is SE 057.