BIO/Artist Statement

I was born in Chicago and migrated west to live in Portland, Oregon, interrupted by several years spent in southern California to complete my PhD in organizational psychology. I now reside in the Portland metro area and call the beautiful Pacific Northwest home. My first camera was a toy 120-film camera gifted to me when seven years old by a savings and loan for opening my very first savings account. I took up photography more seriously in college with a 35mm film camera, black and white film, and my basement darkroom. Digital photography drew my attention around 2006 with its rapidly improving technology, and today I am mostly digital but occasionally work with film.

I have been photographing people, places, and nature for many years as a self-taught photographic artist. Travel to new and foreign places stimulates my curiosity and is the starting point for much of my current work. Yet I also find inspiration in photographing familiar places ordinarily passed by in the rush of life. Photography is a unique experience of seeing an “instant out of time” that no one else sees in exactly the same way. Sometimes a worthy image results and once in a while a deeper meaning emerges from subconscious thoughts or feelings. My work falls mostly into the genres of street photography, portraiture, nature, and architectural photography. Given my background in psychology, I love photographing people, particularly how we interact with the physical and social environments that we create and that, in turn, influence our behavior. Natural landscapes are another favorite genre where I find solitude reflecting on the beauty and grace of our divine universe..

CV

Jim Kushman

Education

1990 PhD. Organizational Psychology, Claremont Graduate University; Claremont, CA

1975 M.S Psychology, Portland State University; Portland, OR

1973 B.S. Psychology, University of Illinois; Urbana, IL

Juried Group Exhibitions

Oregon Society of Artists, How It Looks From Here: A Photography Showcase, October 2021, Portland, Oregon, Honorable Mention Award

PhotoPlace Gallery, Travel: Faces and Places, November 2018, Middlebury, Vermont

Blank Wall Gallery, Street Photography, January 2018, Athens, Greece

Southeast Center for Photography, Landscape, Grand or Personal, September 2017, Greenville, South Carolina

LightBox Photographic Gallery, PDX30 Best Photographers , April 2017, Astoria, Oregon

Black Box Gallery, Portraiture: Photography Now, on-line exhibitions; September 2016; August 2015, Portland, Oregon

Newspace Center for Photography, Members’ Salons; October 2015, 2014, 2013, Portland, Oregon

Concordia University, Libraries’ Art and Culture Program, Uniquely Oregon: A Visual Exploration, July 2015, Portland, Oregon

Light Box Photographic Gallery, Forty Portland Photographers, April 2014, Portland, Oregon

Black Box Gallery, Journeys: Travel Photography, December 2013, Portland, Oregon

Professional Experience

I indulge in fine-art photography as an artistic outlet after a long career encompassing research, program development, and management in the fields of education, social programs, and business development. If you are interested I can provide a full CV of this 40-year professional career.