About Jean Germain
GERMAINPHOTO@WEBTV.NET
Jean Germain experiments with the camera to create
impressionistic images and special effects in nature, places,
wildlife, people and social events. Some of her techniques include
creating images with rear projection through textured glass,
Polaroid transfer, specialized filters, infrared black and white
film, zooming effects and timed night exposures.
Although Germain's professional career did not begin in the area of
photography, the evidence is clear that this medium has become her
passion. She retired from a specialized career in education working
in both the Head Start Program and with the gifted and learning
disabled children for the New Rochelle Elementary school system.
One of her earliest involvements with photography came when she
developed and administered an Experimental Photography Program for
the Harrison School District in New York. She challenged the medium
to successfully integrate classroom learning with the 'aesthetics of
photography' as a tool to help students develop the difference
between "looking and seeing."
As a founding member of the Jazz Club of Sarasota in 1980, she had
the unique opportunity to become the Club's official photographer.
This involvement helped to clearly point her way toward a more
complete commitment to the camera and its many magical eyes.
No matter the subject; person, wildlife, man-made structure or
event; Jean brings her unique vision into focus with the
intervention of selected effect techniques, resulting in a
continued exploration and examination of that fine line between
"looking and seeing."
Germain currently divides her calendar year between Massachusetts
and Florida, trading places with chilling winters and steamy
summers.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Morris Mitchell
Professor of Painting & Drawing
Ringling School of Art and Design
“Recently I had the pleasure of curating a world class exhibition of
photography,
which includes Ms. Jean Germain. I found her world to be poetic and quietly
personal with dreamlike overtones. She exhibits strong humanists and empathetic
sympathies toward her observed subjects. Her work is aesthetically and visually
pleasing.”
George T. Simon
Author of The Big Bands
Excerpt from introduction to Jazz Alive by Jean Germain
“,,,Unlike too many arty or posed shots, these natural-looking visual insights
give you a real feeling of what these creative people were (or still are) really
like. And that could only come from someone who him (her) -self has a real
feeling for the music and keen respect for its performers.
For me, Jean Germain has met these criteria head-on, or sometimes sideways-on,
depending what angle she happens to be shooting from. And she manages to shoot from many of them, snapping many, many shots to be sure that she gets the best
one possible. I know, because I have seen her in action, and also because, as a
semi-professional photographer myself, I can appreciate what it takes to shoot
at just the right emotional moment.
Many of Jean’s subjects have been friends (sometimes close) of mine; others may
not be or have been as intimate. But in just about every instance Jean’s photos
evoke some sort of emotion for me like, “Oh sure, I remember when I looked like
this,” or “Now I’m getting a bit better insight into him (or her).”
Joan Altabe
Art Critic
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
“Praise be to the charm of commonplace things in the hands of an artist. For
having changed matter to an atmospheric condition, you might say that Germain
has given the building a Whistlerian touch.”
“That’s not all Germain’s photography does... It shudders in seismatic eruption,
as if dealt a staggering blow.”
“...Another O’Keeffe connection: Her mentor Steiglitz considered photography a
meditative art that brought what is not seen to the surface. Germain’s lens work
rises to that occasion.”
Thyrza Jacocks
Art Angle Columnist
Pelican Press
“Jean Germain’s Honorable Mention, “Nature’s Images,” is so well done as
to make one forget it’s been done - because it is all gentle poetry.”
Melissa Followell
Manatee Herald Tribune
“Her magic is in the way she sees things…I sense that photography is spiritual
for Germain.”
Heidi Kurpiela
Osprey Observer
“Germain takes some of the most awe-inspiring, real photographs, I have ever
seen.”
Peter Koenig
Art Critic
Sarasota Arts Review
“Her color photos reveal her impressionistic influences with their ‘painterly’
colors and form.”
MEMBERSHIPS
Woodstock Photographic Center, Woodstock, NY
Photographic Resource Center Boston College, Boston MA
Florida Artists Group
Sarasota Arts Council, Sarasota, FL
Women Contemporary Artists, Sarasota, FL
Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, FL
Venice Art Center, Venice, Fl
Longboat Key Art Center, Longboat Key, FL
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Peabody
Museum Workshop, Guest Lecturer, Salem MA
Celebrity Cruise Line, Guest Lecturer, Alaska
Rancho La Puerta, Guest Lecturer, Tecate, Mexico
Cunard Cruise Line, Guest Lecturer, Caribbean
Interlaken School of Art, Photography Instructor, Interlaken, MA
Jazz Club of Sarasota, Official Photographer, Sarasota, FL
Seniors Art Show, Exhibition Juror, Venice, FL
Pelican Cove University, Instructor, Sarasota, FL
Classroom Teacher, New Rochelle, NY
Special Program Development, Instructor, Harrison, NY
SELECTED WORKSHOPS
Woodstock Photography Center
Craig Barber Pinhole Photography
Woodstock, NY
Photographic Resource Center Boston College
Lance Keimig Night Photography
Boston, MA
Woodstock Photography Center
Eugenia Rubin Human Figure
Woodstock, NY
Cape Cod Photography Center
Karin Rosenthal Human figure in the landscape
Eastham, MA
National Geographic Magazine Workshop
Bob Sisson Macro Photography
Englewood, FL
Palm Beach Workshop
Photography School
Boca Raton, FL
Lisl Dennis Travel Photography Workshop
Santa Fe, NM
Ringling School of Art & Design
Alan Doe Creative Photography
Sarasota, Fl
George Lipp Photojournalism
Sarasota, FL
PUBLICATIONS
Jazz Alive by Jean Germain Sarasota, FL (Pending)
CD Cover, Jazz Musicians Dick Hyman/Ruby Braff, Arbor Records 1996
Jazz Club of Sarasota Programs/Multiple Reproductions, Florida 1988-95
Numerous Jazz Musician Shots used worldwide in programs and promotion 1988-95
(Please inquire for stock list)
Multiple sites & publications WORLDWIDE
Sarasota Arts Review, Feature Article Cover Photo, Sarasota, FL 1994
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Feature Article Photo, Sarasota, FL 1990
SEE Magazine, Cover Photo, Sarasota, FL 1990, 1989
Sarasota Magazine, Feature Article Photo, Sarasota, FL 199
Germain’s photography is also in the private collections of over 40 individuals
and organizations.
Germain is interested in exhibiting her images in both galleries and museums.
Please contact her to let her know your particular interest.
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