About
Contact: johnrlamberton@gmail.com
John Lamberton has been a professional photographer in Kansas City for over 40 years. During the course of his career, John has experienced the evolution of photography from film to digital. Always an early adopter of new technologies, he embraced digital photography 30 years ago, both professionally and artistically. Prior to that he founded the Holographic Imaging Lab at Portson Inc., one of the leading holographic imaging companies in the nation. In addition to working as a fine artist, John worked in Collections Management as the Senior Photographer for the Imaging Services Department at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. He was also an Adjunct Professor of Photography at Johnson County Community College where he founded Digital Photography program. He resides in Kansas City Kansas with his wife of 40 years, Deborah.
Experience
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art - Senior Collections Photographer - 13 yrs
Johnson County Community College - Adjunct Professor of Studio Photography, Digital Photography - 18 yrs
Sprint Corp. - Manager of Corporate Photography - 9 yrs
EXHIBITIONS
EXP.20 -2020 Group Exhibition- Barcelona, Spain
Aspen Art Festival -2019 Group Exhibition
Stone Arch Bridge Festival - 2019 Group Exhibition
Kansas City Artists Coalition - 2018, Solo Exhibition
Leedy-Voulkos Art Center - 2017, Solo Exhibition
City Ice Arts - 2013, Solo Exhibition
Blackfish Gallery - 2013, Group Exhibition
1820 Project Space - 2012, Group exhibition
Blackfish Gallery - 2012, Group Exhibition
Thomasic & Rehorn - 2011, Group Exhibition
ArtNow - 2011, Solo Exhibition
Digital Labrador - 2010, Solo Exhibition
Digital Labrador - 2010, Group Exhibition
Thomasic & Rehorn - 2010, Solo Exhibition
Publications
Masterworks of Chinese Art - Principle Photographer
Origins of American Photography - Principle Photographer
Orientations Magazine - Principle Photographer
The Photographs of Homer Page - Principle Photographer
The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky - Contributing Photographer
The Nelson-Atkins Museum Handbook - Contributing Photographer
American Paintings Catalog - Contributing Photographer
Romancing the West: Alfred Jacob Miller in the Bank of America Collection - Contributing Photographer
Sparks - Contributing Photographer
Education
Kansas City Art Institute - Bachelor of Fine Arts, Photography-Film-Video
University of Missouri - Master of Arts, Electronic Media
Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership - FastTrac I and FastTrac II
Lake Forest College - Workshops in Advanced Holography
AWARDS
Stone Arch Bridge Festival - Voted Festival Favorite - 2019
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is abstract. It is all derived or sourced from a light formed image. Some of my sources are film based but mostly I work in the digital realm. I have been working digital since the beginning, before Photoshop and before digital cameras. I have found an affinity with using a machine as my medium. The reason for that is probably because I can’t draw. How I use technology to render my ideas has been an evolution of capabilities and interests that I have sought out along the way. Currently I am exploring the spatial nature of the world. I want to give voice to the notion that we live in a dimensional universe and my art reflects that. My subjects are not significant in of themselves but work to define the dimensional nature of our existence. I see beyond a surface representation and my images portray the complexities and nuance that fills our lives.
The ideas behind my work fall along two lines, creations that follow nature and others that are a result of man. Currently I am exploring imagery where the two lines meet or sometimes collide. Communication is a returning theme to my work. A lot of my work is informed by my interest is maps. Mapping ideas in a spatial context is what my work strives for.
My exploration is meant to give light to a reality that most of what we pass as knowledge is really a fact (or not) stuck somewhere on a spectrum of ideas and never will be the whole story. Often my work draws upon post industrial iconography to illustrate the human condition’s narrow aperture of understanding, preventing one from seeing the world revealed in it’s vast complexity. My interest in depicting the “wider world” stems from the beginning of my spatial studies. I started my investigation with holographic imaging. Having the ability to capture the entire story proved to me it was possible to convey a literally deeper meaning to my ideas.
I create all of my work using Photoshop. I don’t feel using a software program as having an important influence in my work but more as a tool. A very sharp tool that allows me to fashion my ideas the way a sculptor orders matter and space into existence. Having good tools is necessary for me to render the complex nature of my work. Currently I am using a more accessible technology to put forth my ideas. I employ special viewing glasses to access or unlock my work. It is my goal to make work that is free from needing the glasses to comprehend but is fully revealed when they are used. I see them as the key to unlocking the entire nature of my work.
Representation
Weinberger Fine Art weinngergerfineart.com
816.301.4428
114 SW BLVD Kansas City, MO