Exhibit by Jessie Moore

This show is simply a celebration of finding things, beautiful and satisfying. With this collection, I want to honor the pleasure of encountering things that strike a spark inside of you.

Jessie Wilber Gallery
December 8 – February 23, 2024

Receptions

Opening: Friday, December 8th from 5:00-8:00pm
Artist Talk & Closing Reception: Friday, February 9th from 4:00-7:00pm

Artist Statement

This happens for me when the light is just right, when a simple and beautiful composition presents itself, or when I get to witness a snippet of history, be it a structure, a bone, a footprint, being embraced back to nature.

Over the last few years, I’ve traveled around the open spaces and abandoned places of Montana and collected both images with my Hasselblad film camera, as well as tangible things left behind, to create these pieces.

My love for seeing and collecting has been with me my whole life. The gift of observing, from my dad, the memories of riding our horses through the mountains and him pointing out every little flower, mountain or animal track, quizzing me, making sure I recognized and was aware of the details of the world around me. The gift of finding beauty in the discarded comes from my mom, we spent many hours scouring old buildings, school houses, and country dumpsites, finding treasures galore and bringing them new life. I am grateful to have this all play a part in who I have become.

I wanted to bring the photographs to life with the framing and the found objects incorporated into the final pieces. I feel it lightens them up and brings some dimension and interactiveness to them. Life is too short not to have some fun.

My hope is that if these pieces are taken home, they will be added to with small findings and treasures of your own to make them yours.

Artist Bio

I grew up in small towns around Montana: Moore, Ennis, and McLeod and Greycliff, graduating from high school in Big Timber. I was fortunate enough to have creative parents who saw the value of independence and who allowed me to be free to explore the country on foot and horseback.

I had a couple introductions to photography in my early years, and took some classes in college and abroad, but it wasn’t until after graduating from U of M that I decided that photography should be my career. I went to a photography tech school, Hallmark Institute of Photography, with a goal of doing architecture and interiors. After graduating and moving to Nantucket, I worked for both architectural photographers as well as portrait and wedding photographers. I ended up deciding that offering a larger variety of work when I started my own business would keep me engaged and continuing to learn.

I moved back to Bozeman in 2009, and have made photography my business and career. I’ve had my studio in the Emerson Center for 14 years. I love what I do, both the artistic side and the freedom and challenges of owning my own business.

From when I returned to Montana, until around 2019, I was shooting almost daily for clients, but never for myself. At a certain point, I felt like I needed to refresh my personal connection to photography once again. I started by experimenting with an old film camera, and then bought a 500 c/m Hasselblad in 2019. Using film, as opposed to digital, allowed me to separate it from my daily work and approach it in a new way. With the pandemic shut down in 2020, I started really getting out in Montana and I had time to shoot solely for the pleasure of it.

This collection is a result of the last few years, shooting for myself, just because.