Show & Tell: Jon Horvath
A photographer explores with wide-eyed wonder
Hey, friends, we’re hosting photographer Jon Horvath in Madison this weekend, so I invited him to discuss his work and inspirations in the newsletter. I’ll keep things brief, but I’ll say this: Jon is a genuine, original, and uniquely talented artist. Quite simply, he sees things with a distinctive clarity. I hope you enjoy this conversation. If you’re in Madison, please join us for Jon’s lecture on Saturday, August 3. It’s free!
Tell us about yourself. Where are you from, and where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Greendale, Wisconsin, a small Milwaukee suburb with a fascinating history. It’s one of three Greenbelt Communities, a New Deal program conceived by Eleanor Roosevelt to support low-income families with federal public housing. If anyone wants to learn more, photographer Jason Reblando did a fantastic project and book on the “New Deal Utopias” program.
I studied at Marquette University for my formal education and now teach at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. I’ve been very fortunate to remain close to family and friends throughout my life. As a result, I try to make travel a priority to balance living in one place since I was born.
Could you describe your photography? What inspired you to pursue this art form?
It’s weirdly tricky to answer. I make how I make. My photographs are straightforward and formally composed, hopefully with something unexpected below the surface. My style makes sense since I accidentally found my way to photography as an undergrad studying philosophy and creative writing. Both disciplines asked me to slow down, become an attentive observer, ask challenging questions, and try to translate the world around me into a new personal understanding.
In the early days, with my hands on a camera, I immediately understood that it was a tool asking me the same things; only I could work much faster, with greater intuition, and the outcome was visual. So, it was natural and exciting for me to transition from expressive writing to expressive looking. And as an introvert, it was much more in line with my way of being.
Do you have a particular approach to imagemaking? What’s your style?
It depends on the type of project I may be working on at the time. If I’m making portraits or photographing a subject for a specific reason, I’m consciously intentional in my approach. But if I’m shooting in a more generative space of discovery, it’s much looser and improvisational. I have a body of work called Wide Eyed, which is probably most indicative of my natural style. It’s a forever project filled with quiet images, made intuitively and often when getting acquainted with a new place.
“It was natural and exciting for me to transition from expressive writing to expressive looking.”
I find that specific themes continue to emerge in those pictures: some tension between order and disorder, moments in the world that present themselves as being a little off, slightly humorous, or a bit unexpected, and maybe most purely stated, pictures that serve as records of some small moment of personal wonder and awe. And for me, it’s most rewarding to discover the connectivity between things through those pictures. I’m always excited when pictures I made years apart, in different spaces, through differently-aged eyes, find a way to rhyme with each other and produce some new revelation about the world around me.
Are you working on any projects at the moment?
Yes! I know I have multiple projects underway, but I’m still discovering precisely what they are. That might sound a little dodgy, but I’m trying to be patient before defining them too quickly. I recently completed a seven-year body of work called This Is Bliss, which was very involved, meandering, and the most expansive thing I’ve ever undertaken. I published that work in a book in 2022. Being on the other side of that project is daunting yet exciting. But, while I wait for the best way to articulate the new ideas, Wide Eyed is getting a greater share of my attention.
How do you stay inspired?
Travel — physical, spiritual, intellectual, whatever type of travel is available within the circumstances in which I find myself. My most fruitful experiences occur when breaking routine, which often coincides with visiting a new place, reading a new book, or meeting new people. I’m very fortunate to teach, which allows me to meet 30-40 new, excited minds every year. It’s hard not to be inspired by being around that energy and sharing moments of discovery with people from so many different lived experiences. So, even when I can’t travel to a new place, something similar occurs when my students and I share space together.
Tell us about an artist who has intrigued you recently.
Photographically, I’ve been enamored with Stephen Gill's work over the past few years. When I first saw The Pillar, I immediately fell in love with the project and began digging deeper into his practice. From what I can tell, The Pillar, which includes motion-capture pictures of birds and wildlife from a common vantage point, is so simply conceived and executed. But it’s poetic and profound at the same time. I discovered those pictures during the pandemic shutdown, and they provided a meaningful escape from all the uncertainty and trauma we were collectively experiencing. I love it so much when deeply impactful work emerges from such simplicity. The Pillar really exemplifies that.
Show us a picture that moved you recently. Tell us about it.
It’s been a few years since I first encountered it in person, but this series of Adam Fuss daguerreotypes from Home and the World stopped me in my tracks. It's maybe one of the few times in my life where I remember feeling transported to another place by a work of art. Fuss’ work is so haunting, beautiful, and mysterious. And if he has any outtakes he wants to toss out, I’m happy to take them off his hands!
Do you like music? What have you been listening to lately?
Music was a big part of my early life. I state very cautiously that I was once a musician and songwriter, inspired by bands like R.E.M. and, in particular, the lyrics and singing style of Michael Stipe. I listen to music less these days as I regularly get lured into podcasts and audiobooks. But my regulars include Sigur Rós, Sufjan Stevens, George Harrison, Django Reinhardt, Spiritualized, and I guess so many others, too, but that’s a good introductory mixtape.
I collect photography books. Can you recommend a photobook that you love?
I do, too! It’s the only thing I allow myself to collect these days. A couple I have routinely returned to over the past few years are Old Tjikko by Nicolai Howalt, and Death is Not Here by Wouter Van de Voorde. Both blend science, history, and personal relationships with the world's natural phenomena in a poetic way that I find deeply inspiring.
Have you read any good books?
Yes! A few books that I enjoyed recently include Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, and The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli. I’m working through Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino and Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe.
Finally, show us something cool not related to photography. Surprise us!
I don’t know how to “show” this, but I recently learned that time moves incrementally faster at the top of a mountain than at the base of a valley. This revelation broke my very simple mind into many pieces. It's according to a principle of special relativity called "time dilation." I'll defer to Neil deGrasse Tyson for the explanation.
FlakPhoto Projects, the Arts + Literature Laboratory, PhotoMidwest, and the Wisconsin Book Festival will present a photobook talk with Milwaukee-based photographer and artist Jon Horvath, who will discuss his narrative photobook project, This is Bliss, on Saturday, August 3 at 2:00 pm. See more at ArtLitLab.org.
About the photographer
Jon Horvath is an interdisciplinary artist and writer who routinely utilizes systems-based strategies within multimedia narrative projects. His practice has expanded into the mixed-use of photography, video, performance, sculptural objects, and other mediums, placed into a combined space to shape bodies of work reflecting his interest in open-ended, poetic narratives rooted in the exploration of how we build personal and cultural mythologies as a way to better understand the world around us.
Shoutout to Jason! Loved my time studying with him, I wouldn't have changed to getting a photography degree without him! Jon's work was always been so moving to me, this was a great conversation!
This is a wonderful and inspiring conversation. I have been reading the same books, making art along poetic themes about space. I hope to meet Jon sometime and look forward to seeing his exhibition at the James Watrous Gallery. I was sorry to miss the opening.