John Chervinsky (1961–2015) was an American photographer and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

-based

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel electric charge, charged particles to very high speeds and energies to contain them in well-defined particle beam, beams. Small accelerators are used for fundamental ...

engineer who exhibited his photographs internationally.

Life

John Chervinsky was an American engineer and self taught photographer. He was born in 1961 in

Niagara Falls, New York Niagara Falls is a City (New York), city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a total population of 48,671. It is adjacent to the Niagara River, across from the city of Niagar ...

and died in 2015 at the age of 54 due to pancreatic cancer. After his death, the John Chervinsky Emerging Photography Scholarship at the Griffin Museum of Photography was established with the intent to provide support and encouragement in the professional lives of emerging photographers; enhancing their ability to develop their personal vision for photography. His photographs have been widely published in

The Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...

LeMond Gregory James LeMond (born June 26, 1961) is an American former road racing cyclist. He won the Tour de France thrice and the Road Race World Championship twice, becoming the only American male to win the former. LeMond began his professiona ...

, South Korea’s Photo+, among others. Chervinsky’s main occupation was an engineer in applied physics. For 28 years Chervinsky ran a

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and went on to work at the Harvard’s

Rowland Institute for Science The Rowland Institute at Harvard, formerly the Rowland Institute for Science, was founded by Edwin H. Land (founder of Polaroid Corporation) as a nonprofit, privately endowed basic research organization in 1980. The institute merged with Harvard ...

, where he collaborated with various museums to analyze works of art using the

elementary particle In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. The Standard Model presently recognizes seventeen distinct particles—twelve fermions and five bosons. As a c ...

accelerator. Until 2001, Chervinsky focused on

street photography Street photography is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within Public space, public places. It usually has the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by caref ...

but changed the focus of his subject matter when three major tragedies occurred. In the span of a year his wife, Kirsten Chervinsky, became ill, the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center occurred, and his friend Guy Pollard, a fellow photographer, died unexpectedly. With the combinations of these three events, Chervinsky focused on studio photography that combined his love for the arts and physics.

Exhibitions

In 2005, Chervinsky had his first exhibit at the Griffin Museum. He then exhibited in a traveling exhibition organized by the

George Eastman House The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as George Eastman House and the International Museum of Photography and Film, is a photography museum in Rochester, New York. Opened to the public in 1949, is the oldest museum dedicated to photography ...

. His work has also been exhibited at the Spencer Museum of Art, the

Georgia Museum of Art Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

at the University of Georgia, the

Fitchburg Art Museum The Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM) is a regional art museum based in Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Description The Fitchburg Art Museum serves the cities of Fitchburg and Leominster, as well as the surrounding communi ...

, and the

John Michael Kohler Arts Center The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is an independent, not-for-profit contemporary art museum and performing arts complex located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, United States. He has had solo exhibitions at the Michael Mazzeo Gallery in New York City, the

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Fermilab's Main Injector, two miles (3.3 k ...

Art Gallery, Richard Levy Gallery, and the

Blue Sky Gallery Blue Sky Gallery, also known as The Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, is a non-profit exhibition space for contemporary photography in Portland, Oregon. Blue Sky Gallery is dedicated to public education, began by showing local artists and ...

, also known as the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts.

Photography

Chervinsky's engineering background significantly influenced his photographic work. His work uses visual metaphors about the laws of nature and how they relate to everyday life. The concepts in his work address the correlation between rational, scientific explanations regarding existence and humankind's attempts to explain the world through belief systems. His work has been described as "energetic, mixed-media still lifes" that "involve creative assemblages of both found and constructed objects, often with drawn elements." A formative moment in his studio practice occurred when he contemplated drawing a circle in a square corner of a room; from a specific point of view, the chalk line looked round in a photograph. The concept evolved to combine physics formulas, chalk,

forced perspective Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It manipulates human visual perception through the use of scaled objects and the correlation bet ...

with physical objects to create

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

images that convey the laws of nature. Cherivinsky would sometimes include actual scientific concepts into his works, for example, an image that referred to the presence of

water on Mars Although very small amounts of liquid water may occur transiently on the surface of Mars, limited to traces of dissolved moisture from the atmosphere and thin films, large quantities of ice are present on and under the surface. Small amounts of ...

. All of these photos were in black and white, and were printed on matte paper giving them the look of a chalkboard. Chervinsky's ouvre is considered part of the post-photography, staged-photography and constructed-image movements. He also experimented with

Polaroid Polaroid may refer to: * Polaroid Corporation Polaroid Corporation was an American company that made instant film and cameras, which survives as a brand for consumer electronics. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit his P ...

photography, and was included in the exhibition organized by the

MIT Museum The MIT Museum, founded in 1971, is part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It hosts collections of holography, technology-related artworks, artificial intelligence, architecture, robotics, maritime history, ...

, ''The Polaroid Project: At the Intersection of Art and Technology''. The show traveled to the

Amon Carter Museum The Amon Carter Museum of American Art (also known as the Carter) is located in Fort Worth, Texas, in the city's cultural district. The museum's permanent collection features paintings, photography, sculpture, and works on paper by leading arti ...

in Fort Worth, Texas, The Museum for Photography Vienna, the

McCord Museum The McCord Stewart Museum, formerly known as the McCord Museum of Canadian History, is a public research and teaching museum. The Museum’s Archives, Documentary Art, Dress, Fashion and Textiles, Indigenous Cultures, Material Culture and Photogr ...

in Montreal, the

Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...

in Hamburg, the C/O Berlin Foundation, and the

National Museum of Singapore The National Museum of Singapore is a public museum dedicated to Singaporean art, culture and history. Located within the country's Civic District at the Downtown Core area, it is the oldest museum in the country, with its history dating back to ...

. Cherivinsky’s color photography predominantly focused on the passage of time or of motion. Cherivisnky would take a picture of a still life and would then send it to China for it to be painted. Once the painting was received, Cherivisnky would position the painted proxy close to the original still life and rephotograph the tableau. A hand-made edition of a monograph of his work, ''An Experiment in Perspective'', was produced as part of a residency at

Light Work Light Work is a photography center in Syracuse, New York. The artist-run nonprofit supports photographers through a community-access digital lab facility, residencies, exhibitions, and publications. History The organization is housed at Sy ...

in Syracuse, New York, and was produced by Digital Silver Imaging (Belmont, MA).

Collections

Chervinsky's photographic works are in the collections of the

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum (PAM) is an art museum in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The Portland Art Museum has 240,000 square feet (22,000 m2), with more than 112,000 square feet (10,400 m2) of gallery space. The museum’s permanent c ...

, the

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

, the Wright State University Gallery Collection, the Steen Art Collection of the Harvard Business School, List Visual Art Center at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

Santa Barbara Museum of Art The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) is an art museum located in downtown Santa Barbara, California. Founded in 1941, it is home to both permanent and special collections, the former of which includes Asian art, Asian, Visual arts of the United ...

, among others.

References

External links

John Chervinsky website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chervinsky, John 1961 births American photographers 2015 deaths American engineers