Photographer Ron Jude captures the raw materials and systems of the geological world that have taken place for eons and continue to do so despite growing human intervention. Seven large-scale, black and white photographs will captivate viewers post-security within Portland International Airport’s Concourse B/C Connector on view through June 2025.
This exhibition, titled 12 Hz after the artist’s series of the same name, references the limits of our perception. Photographed in Oregon, Hawaii, and Iceland 12 Hz explores the innerworkings of the world around us that often take place un-noticed.
“12 Hz marks the lowest threshold of human hearing, suggesting the powerful yet often imperceptible forces that shape the physical world, from plate tectonics to glacial erosion to the incomprehensibility of geological time.”
Jude strikes a fine balance as he captures the raw essence of geological elements with the goal of excluding human interference. His aim is to focus in on the glacial valleys, lava formations, and rock faces that have formed over time. By de-centering the human experience with nature, Jude illuminates an entire world of systems that have been on-going before humanity’s existence.
“Stripped bare of our presence, they allude to the immense scale and veiled mechanics of phenomena that operate independent of human enterprise. “
This body of work reminds us of the powerful yet fragile geological systems that surround us. Jude expertly captures both the immensity and small detail found in nature, dramatically captured in black and white film.
“Through photographs of subjects that suggest change on a level that falls outside the limits of our perception, I aim to explore the overlap between beauty, awe, and pathos. By stepping back to look at the larger system in flux of which we are only a small part, I want to find my own pulse, as it were, and assert an appropriately scaled sense of being within a hierarchy of this system. “
Ron Jude was born in Los Angeles in 1965 and raised in rural Idaho. He lives and works in Eugene, Oregon, where he is a professor of art and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Oregon. His work often explores the relationship between place, memory, and narrative through multiple approaches ranging from the use of appropriated images to photographs that echo traditional documentary strategies.
Jude’s photographs have been widely exhibited nationally and internationally and are held in the permanent collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. He is the author of twelve books, including Lick Creek Line (2012); Lago (2015); Nausea (2017); 12Hz (2020) and Dark Matter (2022). Jude was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2019 and is represented by Gallery Luisotti in Santa Monica and Robert Morat Galerie in Berlin.
For more information about this exhibition or artwork inquiries, please contact ronjude@gmail.com or visit ronjude.com
