Collection: Geoffrey Ansel Agrons

Bio

As a former radiologist, Geoffrey began his career interpreting “photographs” of the human interior. In time, he recognized that an unspoken aesthetic appreciation of diagnostic images was deeply entwined with the rigor of anatomic analysis, logic, and problem–solving. He grew interested in a different relationship with photography, one that separated an immediate emotional response from vigilant interpretation. In 2005, he acquired his first camera and began to explore the world beyond the darkened radiology reading room. Geoffrey’s work typically explores the uneasy coexistence between human populations and the natural world. He is intrigued by transition and impermanence, and favors material that leaves an inchoate emotional residue — the haunting suspicion that we may have forgotten something important in our inattention to the sensual realm. He has come to think of these mementos mori as “melancholigraphs”.

Geoffrey Agrons lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His work has been represented in many juried exhibitions and he has won numerous awards.

Statement

"In time I came to recognize that an unspoken aesthetic appreciation of diagnostic images was deeply entwined with the rigor of anatomic analysis, logic, and problem solving.  But I grew interested in a different relationship with photography, one that separated an immediate emotional response from vigilant interpretation.  I acquired a camera and began to explore the world beyond the darkened radiology reading room.  The still camera became my modality of choice for affective diagnostic imaging.  In the process, I found respite in feeling rather than thinking.  

The uneasy coexistence between human populations and the natural world interests me as a photographer.  I am intrigued by transition and impermanence, and favor material that leaves an inchoate emotional residue-that haunting suspicion that we may have forgotten something important in our inattention to the sensual realm. 

I concentrate on black and white work.  I have been very pleased with the ethereal look of monochrome archival ink jet prints made using Bizan, a traditional Japanese Washi individually handmade at the Awagami mill in Tokushima. The paper is made from environmentally friendly Kozo (mulberry) and Hemp fibers, yielding naturally deckled edges and a unique texture. 

Some images may be appropriate for hand-made palladium contact prints. This process, sometimes referred to as platinum or platinum-palladium printing, yields a soft ethereal image with a wide tonal range in the highlights. Because pure platinum or palladium metal precipitates within the substance of the paper, the prints are truly archival."