This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
10/19/2022 08:30 AMLocal artist Joe King spent a career in the corporate world, but always had an eye toward creativity. He has channeled his love of the shutter to create photo mosaic compositions that are truly unique and compelling, several of which are currently part of an exhibit at the Scranton Memorial Library.
Joe says his career in finance didn’t exactly prepare him for life as an artist, but his four hours of daily train commute time from his former home in Fairfield into Manhattan allowed him the freedom to explore his passion.
“I had four hours of development time every day going back and forth into Manhattan every day [which] gave me time on the computer to explore. I always liked photography and played with it, but the aft aspect combined with the photography finally clicked for me and I really wanted to create photomosaics. What I found is that 15 percent love it, 15 percent hate it, and everyone else doesn’t know what the heck it is,” Joe says jokingly. “So, with that time on the train, I was able to get pretty good at it.”
Joe says he was fascinated by the history of mosaic and how he could adapt that to a modern audience. Mosaic is a medium in which small objects, pieces of glass, shells, pebbles, and pottery are utilized to create a larger image. Mosaic is an art form that is thousands of years old and was a central form of expression for many cultures including Rome and Mesopotamia, where the art dates back at least 6,000 years.
Photomosaic uses the same technique, using thousands of miniaturized photos to render a larger image. From a distance, the larger image predominates, but up close the miniaturized photos overtake the eye's mind and become foremost, Joe says.
Joe emphasizes that despite the use of computers, there is no algorithm that he uses or designs that are computer generated. The art is all his own.
“I do develop software, so I did do some of my own customization and optimization to know what to do, and though this work is computer assisted, it can’t create a design, it can’t create a shape. It doesn’t have that in its inventory. So, if I’m looking for the tip of George Harrison’s nose or the screw on a guitar pickup, I have to find it. You need to take pictures, and lots of them, to ensure I have what I need. So, the skill, if there is such a thing in doing this, is in knowing what to create, in terms of shapes,” Joe says. “A really good mosaic takes at least 400 unique images and up to 2,000 photos. It’s not like you just press a button. It certainly is computer assisted, but there is a real ‘art’ to it. It can really take a lot of time to do that.”
Joe has completed several projects for local non-profits, stained glass restoration at area churches, and also a project for The Kate in Old Saybrook, that utilized images of Katherine Hepburn from the theatre’s collection to create an image of the building itself.
“I offered to do this for The Kate and talked to them, and I said give me any photos you have. So, they uploaded hundreds of pictures, her driver’s license [Hepburn’s], of her playing tennis, and then I was able to create an image from all of that. That was a really fun project to work on, and they eventually auctioned that piece off at a benefit,” says Joe.
The process is not an easy one, as about 2,000 photos are required to render a quality photomosaic, according to Joe. The individual photos must be “selectively cropped and edited to create a sufficient amount of diverse shapes to render all the edges of the overall image, along with all the hues and shadows required to render the overall image”, says Joe.
“My photomosaics are generally thematic, meaning that the underlying miniature images are a component of the larger, overall image or at least related to it,” says Joe. “It is fascinating to me to utilize state of the art digital technology, old fashioned patience, and electronic "scissoring" and "pasting" to recreate an art form that is 6,000 years old and stands as one of the earliest sophisticated art forms of mankind.”
Joe says that his compositions for the current exhibit utilize original photos for each piece, taken at the "Play It Loud - Instruments of Rock & Roll" 2019 exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. These photomosaics incorporate original photographs of the instruments used by scores of rockers and "guitar gods", reimagining these iconic instruments in a unique way, according to Joe.
Photomosaics in this series at the Scranton include Chuck Berry's ES 350T guitar, which he used on "Johnny B. Goode", Eddie Van Halen's "Frankenstein" Guitar, Jimi Hendrix’s 1967 Gibson Flying V used and painted by Jimi Hendrix, and Keith Richards' 1957 Gibson Les Paul Custom Guitar self-decorated in 1968, among other notable instruments.
Joe says that his mosaic work is a combination of his interests and skills, and a great outlet for his creative side.
“The idea that you can do it with photos is very interesting, unlike a collage or decoupage which can overlap, this is somewhat mathematical, which I like. That really appeals to me. My background is in accounting so there is enough consistency that it kind of satisfies my ‘accounting gene,’ but at the same time it is art. The blend of the technology and the art really hit me. Because I guess I’m half good at each of them so the sum of the two gets me most of the way there,” laughs Joe. “The idea that this art is 6,000 years old, and is still relevant and can be combined with our modern technology is really interesting to me. It’s almost like a puzzle, which I like. The ability to construct something from a whole bunch of unrelated pieces, and the idea that you can create something with that is fascinating. The combination of creating an image from itself is just very intriguing, and something I find very cool.”
For more information on Joe and his work, visit elegantlensphotography.com