Jamie Baldridge (born May 24, 1975) is an American photographer and arts educator. He creates highly manipulated and surreal tableau vivant photographs. He is currently a professor of Photography in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Life and work

Jamie Baldridge was born and raised in

New Iberia New Iberia (french: La Nouvelle-Ibérie; es, Nueva Iberia) is the largest city in and parish seat of Iberia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The city of New Iberia is located approximately southeast of Lafayette, and forms part of the Lafa ...

, Louisiana on May 24, 1975. He was raised in a conservative,

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

household. He went on to study at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge where he received both his

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

and later his

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

degree. He is known for creating highly manipulated surreal tableau vivant photography. Baldridge's work references many literary, philosophical, religious, and artistic themes such as the symbolism and psychology of dream imagery, the frangibility of relationships, altered states of consciousness,

Jungian archetypes Jungian archetypes are a concept from psychology that refers to a universal, inherited idea, pattern of thought, or image that is present in the collective unconscious of all human beings. The psychic counterpart of instinct, archetypes are thoug ...

, and esoteric tales and fables. "He has filtered those loaded fables through his subconscious, tempered them with dystopia, tasty fetishes and research gleaned from the musty stacks of Latin scholarship, and emerged with (a) painterly surrealistic vision." He cites

Leonora Carrington Mary Leonora Carrington (6 April 191725 May 2011) was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of ...

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , , ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on ...

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the ...

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, Remedios Varo,

Edward Gorey Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an Americans, American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for books by other w ...

, and the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh ...

'' as but a few of his varied inspirations. His subjects, often have their faces and/or heads obscured allowing the viewer greater opportunity for symbolic interpretations of identity and challenging accepted preconceptions about the genre of portraiture. Baldridge's works are often accompanied by narratives written in a very purple and baroque prose which serve to describe the point of peripety represented in the image itself. He was named by Oxford American magazine in 2012, one of the new "100 superstars of Southern art".

Publications

*2008 – ''The Everywhere Chronicles'' (artist photography book with writings). Jamie Baldridge. New York: 21st Editions *2013 – ''Almost Fiction''. Jamie Baldridge (artist photography book with foreword by Graham Nash) San Francisco: Modernbook Editions

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*2008 –''Informed Visions,'' Millenia Fine Art Orlando, Orlando, Florida *2009 – ''Dystopia,'' Camara Oscura galeria de arte Madrid, Spain *2009 – ''The Everywhere Chronicles,'' Galerie Utrecht, Amsterdam, Netherlands *2010 – ''Pilgrims & Peregrines,'' Richard Goodall Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom *2010 – ''Belle Epoque,'' Taylor Bercier Fine Art New Orleans, Louisiana *2013 – ''Playing with Arsenic,'' Camara Oscura galeria de arte, Madrid, Spain *2013 – ''Almost Fiction,'' Modernbook Gallery, San Francisco, California

Two-person exhibitions

*2007 – ''Jamie Baldridge & Adam Farrington,'' Taylor Bercier Fine Art, New Orleans, Louisiana *2009 – ''Magic Realism,'' exhibition with Sergio Fasol, Schneider Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois *2012 – ''VS.,'' exhibition with Bernhard Buhmann, Carbon 12 Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Selected group exhibitions

*2011 – ''

India Art Summit India Art Fair, previously known as India Art Summit founded bSunil Gautam is an annual Indian modern and contemporary art fair held in New Delhi, India. The fair includes paintings, sculptures, photography, mixed media, prints, drawings and vid ...

,'' Carbon 12 Gallery, New Delhi, India *2013–2014 – ''Decisive Moments,'' Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii *2015 – ''MORPHEE II'', Acte2rivegauche, Paris, France

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldridge, Jamie 1975 births Living people 21st-century American photographers American digital artists American surrealist artists People from New Iberia, Louisiana Photographers from Louisiana University of Louisiana at Lafayette faculty