About the Artist

Some pictures shout, LOOK AT ME! Others draw you in slowly posing questions rather than answers. What is the hidden meaning in the subtle features of a human face? Are timeless stories told in the interactions people have with others and their surroundings? Are the things we build on the land a deeper expression of our values and culture? I see things with my eyes, emotions, and thoughts, and then an instant out of time is preserved in a photograph that is one person’s way of seeing the world. But I want more. I hope that viewers can create their own stories, engaging in a kind of dialogue with the image, knowing that we all see things differently. When a photograph becomes a conversation, I feel it has succeeded.

I was born in Chicago and live in Portland Oregon in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I have always loved photographing since my first camera, a cheap plastic film camera given to me when I was seven years old. I loved shooting family members and the places we visited thinking that I could preserve those moments that pass by too quickly. I became a more serious photographer while in college and afterwards with my film camera and homemade darkroom, and have pursued photography as a passion ever since. After finally completing a PhD in organizational psychology after some years of indecision, I worked as a social scientist trying to understand how human nature plays out in different social systems. I have a strong interest in people and how their surroundings influence their behavior which somehow crept its way into my photography. I primarily photograph people and culture: who they are and how they live.

jim.kushman@gmail.com / +1 503 880 3681

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