Artist’s Bio Hagerstown, Maryland writer, musician, and photographer James S. Oppenheim has published in numerous magazines and newspapers, including The Washington Post and The North American Review, periodically picked up income playing guitar and singing in bars and restaurants; and has worked weddings and shot products as a photographer while compiling a growing catalog of fine art photography.
The artist holds M.A.s in English Language and Literature and Outdoor Recreation Resources Management from the University of Maryland, College Park and a B.A. in English from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
Photographer’s Statement In what I call “response photography”—the photography that discovers design and story in the elements of an environment—I look for interest in arrangement, structure, and time in visual terms. A fire road, a ditch, a fence row, a wood lot afford travel into the order and disorder of things. Let nature add season, weather, and time of day for mood and myself discipline and patience in best framing for effect.
Drift.
To be more candid, I (“the photographer”) geared up — and remain equipped — for many things, from advertising to portraiture to journalism.
Having weathered the passing of the film era, I’ve entered a somewhat muddled mission era. Of the three art areas, I had thought photography the most immediate and practical in contemplation of returns, but there must be something in me that makes fine art of potential applied skill sets.
Whatever it is, I’ve learned to live with it.
I make beautiful artifacts.
I think that’s enough.
J. S. Oppenheim -- All Together 