Excited to have 36 pieces from A Vanishing Folklore and The Changing Landscape of American Retail on display through January 6th at The Gallery at Mountain Shadows
5445 E. Lincoln Drive,
Paradise Valley, AZ 85253. ⁠

Curator Cece Cole:
Jesse Rieser’s thematic works celebrate the often-overlooked in our day-to-day American experience. With the use of light and bleached color, Rieser constructs an illusionistic existence where the lines between fact and fiction are blurred.

For his exhibition Souvenirs From Paradise, Jesse intertwines divergent narratives to find meaning in the meaningless. The familiar becomes foreign in his examination of our rituals and the artifacts we leave behind. One-time paradisal places are framed by our modern anxieties about the past, present, and future. Intentionally omitted information evokes a sense of absence or loss and illuminates the surreal in our surroundings.

Jesse was born in the Ozarks and attended Arizona State University, where he majored in photography and art history while attending the Herberger Institute of Art and Design. His work has been profiled by The New York Times, NPR, Washington Post, Wired, and NatGeo. He has been recognized by Communication Arts and AP Annual, and is a Critical Mass top 50 artist (awarded three times), a One Club Young Gun, a Magenta Foundation Flash Forward recipient, and a winning artist of the Klompching Gallery Fresh Award and exhibition.

A Vanishing Folklore 2012 - 2022
These works are the transmissions of a citizen who seems comfortable sitting with the knowledge that he is as excited by his home as he is alarmed by it. The photographs are as much about the American roadside as they are the infinitely flat and delusional digital landscape, a place where reverence is arbitrarily distributed between the meaningful and meaningless components of our world, both existing and extinct.

If the earlier work of Christmas in America: Happy Birthday, Jesus is a thematic and a visual exercise in American Maximalism, these images are deceptively nuanced photographs of—and for—an America that has done everything it can to abolish nuance, creating bleached-out stand-ins for the place itself.

It’s hard to ignore the current collective fear of losing one’s version of America—their way of life, the fear that it too is fleeting. It’s as if their concept of America is un-shareable. You will find images of implied loss, or as if something is missing or been plucked out of the frame. Erased.

The Changing Landscape of American Retail 2015 - 2022
Like memories, familiar retail entities are fading away. Today, they stand as modern-day ruins and architectural artifacts that reach into the not-so-distant past of our own maturing interests and evolving identities.

Toys “R” Us brings back of memories of avoiding my brother’s aerial assaults of red dodge balls and Nerf guns. The Battlefield Mall was once a central meeting spot for my junior high peers—anchored by the food court and Aladdin’s Castle arcade. The arcade elicits a sensory transaction when I’m greeted by the flashing lights of Street Fighter II, manic electronic beeps, purple geometric carpet, and the oddly unique odor of stale popcorn mixed with the metallic scent of quarters, tucked into my front pocket. During high school and college, I spent hours at Best Buy and Circuit City listening stations, previewing new music releases from my favorite artists.

By 2012, Circuit City closed their doors. Toys “R” Us folded in the spring of 2018, and Best Buy continues to shutter underperforming stores. Additionally, arcades and food courts are endangered as “Class B” malls are closing all over the U.S.

Store closings feel like a continuation of our declining thoughtful conversations, empty playgrounds, and sense of community as we opt for a digital facsimile. We are no longer previewing music and getting recommendations on new releases in person and in retail shops. We will no longer meet our friends in food courts.

The Changing Landscape of American Retail is an exercise of looking to the past and peering into the future, serving as a metaphor of how technology is accelerating cultural change in the modern world. I know you can’t fight change, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be sentimental.

Beyond thrilled to share that _Antoine’s Escalara_s has been recognized in this year’s Communication Arts Photo Annual.

This new photo and film hybrid project marries my environmental architectural sensibilities with my sport photographic works.

Congrats to the fellow winners and thank you to the judges: Mike Davis**,** visual storytelling consultant/photo editor/educator/author, Minneapolis, MN
Jennifer Dorn**,** photo director, _Variety_, Los Angeles, CA
Luis Paulo Gatti**,** creative director/head of art/teacher, Stuttgart, Germany
Natalia Jiménez**,** picture editor, the _Washington Post_, Washington, DC
Marcia Minter**,** co-founder/executive director, Indigo Arts Alliance, Portland, MA
Nikki Ormerod**,** director/photographer/partner, Undivided Creative, Toronto, Canada
Adrienne Pao**,** photographer/creative director/director of Academy of Art University School of Photography, San Francisco Bay Area, CA
David Roennfeldt**,** founder/creative director, 3 Deep Design, Melbourne, Australia
Marcus Smith**,** photographer/director, Chicago, IL
Steve Wallington, creative director and co-founder, the Photography Movement, London, United Kingdom

I Am Not a Soldier, but I Have Been Trained to Kill for Wired Magazine has been named one of the year’s best in the upcoming American Photography 38 Photo Annual book.

Commissioned after the insurrection, these works explore the growing tactical industry that teaches American civilians to fight like Special Ops forces. Photographed at Gunsite Academy, the longest running civilian tactical firearm training facility.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to this year’s judges:
Samir Abady, Photo Editor, The Wall Street Journal
Dudley M. Brooks, Photo Editor, The Washington Post Magazine
Shahrzad Elghanayan, Senior Photo Editor, NBC News
Gail Fletcher, Photo Editor, The Guardian
Jeanne Graves, Director of Photography, _Fast Company
Whitney Matewe, Photo Editor, TIME Magazine
Michele Romero, Creative Photography Director, PhotoRehab
Elijah S Walker, Visual Journalist and Photography Editor, The New York Times
Amy Wolff, Photo Director, Hearst Enthusiast Group
Nili Zadok, Executive Producer

The Changing Landscape of American Retail is on display through October 10th in the annual Fresh exhibition at Klompching Gallery. The gallery has arranged a zoom panel with owners Debra Klompching and Darren Ching with virtual artist talks with myself and artist Marcus Desieno and you can register through eventbrite here.

Now in its 9th year, the FRESH Annual Exhibition is presented by the Klompching Gallery in New York. Only 5 photographers are selected for this exemplary exhibition, curated and presented to the highest standards by one of the leading contemporary art galleries, specializing in the exhibition and sale of emerging, mid-career and established artists working in the photographic arts.

Beginning in 2015, The Changing Landscape of American Retail is an ongoing documentation of the shift from traditional brick-and-mortar locations where we once socialized and interacted with our community to the stark and generic essential for e-commerce. Like memories, familiar retail entities are fading away. Today, they stand as modern-day ruins and architectural artifacts.

These works are an exercise of looking to the past and peering into the future, serving as a metaphor of how technology is accelerating cultural change in the modern world. I know you can’t fight change, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be sentimental.

Celebrated in the PDN Photo Annual and Photolucida’s Critical Mass, you can learn more by visiting interviews on The Washington Post, NPR, Architectural Digest, Wired, Fast Company, and Business Insider.

Honored to be interviewed and have Christmas In America: Happy Birthday, Jesus featured on the cover of The Washington Post. Head here to read the feature in full.

Photo edited by Karly Domb Sadof and interview by Marisa Lati.

Interview:
_An inflatable Santa Claus loomed four stories over a Christmas tree lot, waving in the breeze and catching Jesse Rieser’s attention as he drove through Phoenix in 2009.

The decoration was absurd, Rieser said later, but joyous in its own way.

Inspired, he set out the next year to document Christmas’s contradictions — its sincerity and creativity on one hand, and its awkwardness and bleakness on the other. Rieser traveled to 18 states over the next decade, from Oregon to Florida, and ended in New York City to capture images that were visually distinct from those of less populated areas.

After researching each region, Rieser knocked on the doors of houses with decorations he wanted to photograph. Often, he said, people were eager to discuss their flamboyant displays. Many of them told him that they staged the elaborate scenes to tap into nostalgia for their childhoods, while some said they were trying to bring joy to other families — a particularly poignant goal during the isolating_ coronavirus _pandemic.

“A lot of these homes become the sort of de facto community centers for the neighborhood,” Rieser said. “The kids want to come, so the parents come. It sort of brings people together in this kind of adorable side effect of this mass consumption.”_

_The title of the project, “Christmas in America: Happy Birthday, Jesus,” originated from one of Rieser’s favorite photos. Neon red lights spell “Happy birt, Jesus” over the roof of a white garage, with the missing four letters resting atop the shingles.

Rieser took that shot in the first year of his project, when his partner pushed him to return to the location on an unseasonably cold and windy night in the desert. At 2 a.m. one day between Christmas and New Year’s Day, he said, he stood on a ladder in the home’s front yard and captured that image.

Rieser’s view of the colorful Christmas displays evolved over the course of the project. At first, he said, he thought the decorations symbolized excess consumption. He later decided that people’s motivations seemed more innocent and endearing.

One pair of sisters, he said, had an ornately decorated space in their home that might evoke feelings of escapism. But when they left that room, they often walked into a much more mundane scene: eating frozen TV dinners while watching the television show “Cops.”

Quirky decorations, Rieser said, may be a way for those sisters and others to find and share joy._

The Star Geezers is featured in Fisheye’s Photo Review for 2021 and 2022. This French biennial review of contemporary photography stands at 564 pages and can be purchased here.

Fisheye: “The Review is a true “bible” of contemporary photography, a handbook of inspirations, a guide of rising stars offers unexpected connections between fashion, documentary, intimate and experimental projects. This book gives a unique insight into today’s visual arts, and proves that there are no limits to audacity.”

This is a story about “Sky Village,” an astronomy centric retirement community and their founders, the self appointed “Star Geezers,” Jack and Alice Newton. Located in Arizona near the New Mexico and Mexico border, the remoteness (closest grocery store is 3 hours away) is a gift as this is one of the darkest places on the North American light pollution map. Couple this with the clear air of the desert, this was how the Newtons selected and purchased several hundred acres of land and divided them into 22 distinct lots.

Easily one of the most interesting places I have visited in recent memory. A close-knit community bonded by their love of the celestial, the remoteness, and the darkness….. so dark that on a new moon you can no longer see your feet. So dark you never knew so many stars existed- appearing dizzying, textural, and 3-dimensional. So dark as your eyes adjust, you can see your shadow cast by the stars overhead.

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Alex Gagne for The Photo Banter. We cover a range of topics from my past to current works, my photographic philosophies, and navigating both the art and the commissioned audience of the industry. We also touch on something I have been thinking a lot about lately- time as a medium… Conceptually, technically, and thematically. ⁠⁠

It was such an honor to join an impressive list of peers, mentors, and photographic legends.

In addition to the above interview, podcasts are available on iTunes, Spotify, and Soundcloud.

On today’s podcast I speak with photographer Jesse Rieser. Jesse Has worked with clients such as ESPN, Coca Cola, Esquire, The NBA, and Adidas to name a few. In this interview I speak to Jesse about his recent cover shoot with NBA player Devin Booker for ESPN , I also speak to Jesse about his approach to assignment work and how he balances the worlds of Art & Commerce. I’ve always enjoyed Jesse’s use of color in his photographs so I was excited to get a chance to speak with him about his recent project titled “Phoenix : A Dystopian Legoland that tastes Like Candy” which is a series of urban landscape photos and portraits that utilize color and space in a unique way. Jesse brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the photographic industry so I was pumped to get a chance to speak with him about his journey with photography so I hope you enjoy and thanks for listening.

Can Science Cure Death? It Sure Looks Like It for Popular Mechanics has been “chosen” by the American Photography 38 Photo Annual

Pictured is 72 year old James Strohle. Strohle is cofounder of People Unlimited, a community to inspire people to live infinite lifespans and to introduce anti-aging developments to the public.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to this year’s judges:

Samir Abady, Photo Editor, The Wall Street Journal

Dudley M. Brooks, Photo Editor, The Washington Post Magazine

Shahrzad Elghanayan, Senior Photo Editor, NBC News

Gail Fletcher, Photo Editor, The Guardian

Jeanne Graves, Director of Photography, Fast Company

Whitney Matewe, Photo Editor, TIME Magazine

Michele Romero, Creative Photography Director, PhotoRehab

Elijah S Walker, Visual Journalist and Photography Editor, The New York Times

Amy Wolff, Photo Director, Hearst Enthusiast Group

Nili Zadok, Executive Producer

I Am Not a Soldier, but I Have Been Trained to Kill has been selected as an editor’s pick on BOOOOOOOM.

Photographed after the insurrection, these works explore the growing tactical industry that teaches American civilians to fight like Special Ops forces.

Photographed at Gunsite Academy, the longest running civilian tactical firearm training facility.

Words by Rachel Monroe.

America Is Reopening. Here is What it Looks Like for _The New York Tim_es was selected as one of the five finalists for The Agents Club ’22 Awards in the “Poetic Documentary” category. ⁠

Last year I was part of a nationwide project documenting the reopening. Pictured here is the Arizona Balloon Festival in Goodyear, AZ.

This commission reflects many of my sensibilities seen in my long-term personal works. Here the ingredients of light, color, humor, candid action, and charming moments make up this uniquely American visual recipe.

As much as the larger project was a post-pandemic coming out party for America, I suppose it was mine too— my first time venturing into a mostly unmasked gathering in a place other than a grocery store or retail establishment.

With a photographer assigned to each state, the totality of the project reminded me of one of the first photo documentary books of memory, David Elliot Cohen and Rick Somlan’s 1986 A Day In the Life of America.

The New York Times-
“After a year spent in lockdown, The New York Times sent photographers to all 50 American states — as well as D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico — to document what reopening looks like.

From the beginning, the U.S. had a patchwork response to the coronavirus. Conflicting guidance from federal, state and local governments often left communities, businesses and individuals to navigate their own way through competing public health and economic crises.

As states began to announce reopenings in March, we documented each state’s unique re-emergence from the pandemic. The approach to reopening has been much the same: unclear guidance, competing narratives and Americans left to gauge their own comfort levels. Some have taken these first steps cautiously. But many scenes recall a world untouched by a deadly virus.”

I am honored to share that Auctioning Off a Dead Mall for The New York Times has been named one of the year’s best by the American Photography 37 Photo Annual for editorial photography.

How will the pandemic accelerate the retail apocalypse? When a mall closes, where does all of it’s stuff go? I set out to answer these questions at the recently shuttered Metrocenter mall in Phoenix, AZ.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to this year’s judges:
Arem Duplessis, Jury Chair, Group Creative Director, Apple Inc.
Brian Bantog, Art Director, Nike
Stella Blackmon, Photo Editor, New York Magazine
Jane Clark, Photography Director, AARP Media
Vida Cornelious, Executive Creative Director, T Brand Studio/New York Times
Leslie dela Vega, Director of Visuals, OZY MEDIA
Natalia Jiménez, Picture Editor, The Washington Post
Gianmaria Schonlieb, Creative Director, Lyft
Philip Brian Tabuas, Photo Editor, Bloomberg News
Ronda Thompson, Web Design Consultant, Bed Bath & Beyond

Being asked to be a part of the Young Guns jury is both humbling and inspiring. As a past winner and 3-time judge, I am always blown away by the level of work being produced by the next generation. In it’s 19th year, the One Clubs Young Guns competition recognizes the world’s best working in film, photography, advertising, illustration, graphic design, animation, architecture, typography, music, and sound design age 30 and under.

For the annual The New Procrastinator’s Guid to Entering Young Guns judges Gemma O’brien, Amber Vittoria, Sekani Solomon, Kellie Cambpell-Illingworth, Chad Michael Joyce N. Ho, Wendy W. Fok, Brian Gartside, and I share our insights to preparing entries and thoughts on procrastination. Head here to read the full article and see my contribution bellow.

Winners will be unveiled on October 27th and will be celebrated at Sony Hall in New York City on Wednesday, November 17th.

The New Procrastinator’s Guide to Entering Young Guns
Jesse Rieser
Photographer
YG9 Winner
YG19 Judge

If you don’t procrastinate, there is a strong chance we can’t be friends (half joking. sorta). I’ve procrastinated as long as I can remember. And at every stage. Elementary school book reports, university term papers, client deadlines, grant proposals… all of it. Look, I get it. Besides, everything is a little spicier when the clock is ticking, and the pressure is on.

But don’t let my fondness of chaos come off as an endorsement to craft an entry in disarray. I have had the honor of jurying three winning classes and I want to help position yourself to stand out in a hyper-competitive field.

When compiling your entry, my first point of advice is stylistic consistency. I want to be able to look at work and immediately say “That looks like the work of so and so.” Second is to think about the uniqueness of you. Think about how only you see the world the way you do; this is your most valuable currency. These sensibilities should consistently spill into both your client and personal works. I will always value a fresh and unique point of view over awards and high-profile client work with stylistic inconsistencies. Embrace your vision and push your

creative currency, the awards and clients will come later. And often.

In collaboration with Red Modern, The Sunset Spot is a new exhibition program curated by artist, Jesse Willenbring, inside Jonathan Wayne’s eponymous store. Each exhibition is a pairing of artworks by two artists displayed alongside two pieces of corresponding furniture. One combination is displayed inside a sparse gallery and another is displayed within the context of the store.

I am exhibiting with celebrated modern artist Matt Magee. In response Magee’s Poem for Dublin, Green 7, and Flag Hanger, I am previewing works from the upcoming A Vanishing American Folklore and Stalking A Serial Killer book. The exhibition is structured for collectors to view the work with socially distanced appointments and a complimentary face covering designed by by Jesse Willenbring.

Curator Jesse Willenbring-­
“For the past decade, my wife and I have worked collaboratively under the name, The Sunset People. We have a shared list of passing thoughts about sunsets and their relationship to our work as visual communicators. We often return to this list as a place of inspiration at the start of a project. Our modest, slightly clunky notes remind us of a philosophical ideal larger than the work we pursue. One of my favorites is, “take a deep breath and make time to take in the sunset at the end of each day.”

For this project I wanted to create a place to reflect upon our collective relationship to an earth that gives back a unique sublime beauty daily. The sun’s bright hot life is also the world’s most efficient demarcation of time passed. Ever prescient right now, it feels like a safe reminder that we are not alone during this lonely time. Experiencing a good sunset is like the best of an art exhibition, simultaneously universal and yet personal in meaning.

In collaboration with Red Modern Furniture, The Sunset Spot is a new exhibition program inside Jonathan Wayne’s eponymous store. It is a westward facing wall within a retail space that presents a pairing of artworks by two artists. Select pieces of furniture will encourage and enhance what is in front you. Matt Magee, Jesse Rieser is the inaugural exhibition.

Matt Magee and Jesse Rieser are wanderers. They’re masters of the passing observation: bringing light to the splendor of everyday visual happenstance. To Matt Magee a discarded aluminum can, a tube of green paint, a misprinted fortune cookie text, or a shadow glanced from an open studio door equally contribute to his visual lexicon. For Jesse Rieser, “his use of light and bleached color, leaves the viewer with the illusion that our existence is equally beautiful as it is fleeting.” Together, these two artists present works that reveal and look back at us, putting the viewer on the spot while giving us a starting point to create our own languages and stories.

The pandemic has shocked us all and although it has restricted our return to ‘normal’ it has not limited the potential to use art to create distinct, memorable experiences. The sun will set again tomorrow, enjoy another one today."

Pictured Above:
Jesse Willenbring curator (top right) By way of New York and Los Angeles, Jesse is a painter represented by Ceysson & Bénétière. He also is the cofounder and creative director of of bleach books; specializing in artist books and collaborating with film makers such as Jordan Peale, Jonah Hill, and Gus Van Sant.

Jonathon Wayne gallerist (top left) As owner of Red Modern, Jonathan has been dealing art and rare mid-century furniture for nearly three decades. “A piece of art, a well-designed chair, both carry stories and history that transform banality into magic – blank walls into conversations with friends and ancestors.”

Matt Magee exhibiting artist (bottom left) Born in Paris, educated at Pratt and mentored by Robert Rauschenberg. Known for his minimal abstract paintings and sculptures widely collected and exhibited.

Jesse Rieser exhibiting artist (bottom right) Rieser’s photographic work focusses on the unique American experience. His use of light and bleached color, leaves the viewer with the illusion that our existence is equally beautiful as it is fleeting. He and his projects have been featured in the NY Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, and NPR.

Excited to learn that my Barron’s cover story _Fortunes Rise Anew in the City of Second Chances_⁠ was selected as a Merit Winner in the 2022 SPD (Society of Publication Designer) 57 awards.

“Las Vegas is coming back to life.

The pandemic hit Las Vegas hard in March 2020. Gambling is often resilient during economic downturns, but it’s difficult to maintain business as usual when casinos are shut down for nearly three months.

Convention business dried up, too. And with none of the buffets or signature shows open and lockdowns in place, leisure travel froze. Thousands of workers whose livelihood is tied to the 24/7 bustle of Sin City were suddenly out of work.

Now, lifted by a surge of leisure travelers, Las Vegas is shaking off the pandemic’s grip and staging a comeback.⁠⁠”

Thank you to jurors Joseph Hutchinson Creative Director of Rolling Stone, Nick Mrozzowski Creative Director of Hello Alice, Amy Feitelberg Art Director of Photography for Square, Robert Newman Creative Director This Old House, and J Armus Creative Director of Jarmus Design. ⁠

I am honored to share that The Internet Giant Who Went Too Far for Wired has been named one of the year’s best by the **_American Photography 36 Annual **for editorial photography.

Published in the July / August 2019 issue, I photographed Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin as they await trial for owning the online classified giant Backpage.com. Backpage was the red-light district of the internet or the Google of commercial sex ads, and for this both men face life in prison. As they await trial they are under country arrest and cannot travel.

Photographically I wanted to portray Lacey and Larkin in a way that spoke to their decades of defiance, possible incarceration, the shadowy space in which Backpage operated, and their physical and psychological imprisonment as they are confined to their homes and Maricopa County. In hindsight, these works take on new meaning as we have been participating in our own levels of compliance and isolation.
Article by Christine Biedermann and assigned by Beth Holzer and Anna Alexander.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to this year’s judges:
Aeriel Brown, Photo Director, Bloomberg Businessweek
Laura Geiser, Freelance Photo Producer and Editor
Tara Guertin, Director of Photography AFAR
Molly Roberts, Independent Photography Editor, Visual Storyteller and Curator
Jolie Ruben, Culture Photo Editor, The New York Times
David Sleight, Design Director, ProPublica

For the kickoff of the holiday spending season, I talk _The Changing Landscape of American Retail _to The Washington Post. Click here to read in full.

The Washington Post feature Edited by Karly Domb Sadof and
Business Insider feature edited and interview conducted by Katie Canales.

I am excited please to learn that Auctioning Off A Dead Mall for The New York Times was shortlisted as a finalist for architectural and interior photography in this year’s spotlight awards by Production Paradise.

This portfolio acts as an intro to the next chapter of The Changing Landscape of American Retail. How will Covid accelerate the retail apocalypse? When a mall closes, where does all of it’s stuff go? I set out to answer these questions at the recently shuttered Metrocenter mall in Phoenix, AZ.

Thank you to the 60+ international judges.

Last week I started to see Christmas lights find their way back on to residential homes as a sign of cheer and hope amid the pandemic. I liked the idea of “Merry quarantine.” Christmas In America: Happy Birthday, Jesus at the core is about the annual escape and a unifying event by way of nostalgic ritual. A reoccurring comfort where many find joy in the exercise of looking forward coupled with memories of holidays past. Similar to now- we stay patient and too search for solace in looking both to the future and past.

Selected features are as follows:
1-5: Chaeg Issue 52. South Korea
6-7: Wings Magazine. Germany
8: Geo Magazine. Germany
9: Amtrak the National. USA

The Changing Landscape of American Retail is currently on exhibit as part of the traveling exhibition The Fence by Photoville at the Griffin Museum of Photography and the Winchester Cultural District until September 27, 2020. The outdoor installation is a safe exhibition experience during covid.

2019 & 2020 Fence exhibitions:
Brooklyn Bridge Park. Brooklyn, NY.
Santa Fe Railyard Park. Santa Fe, NM.
LoDo District. Denver, CO.
Atlanta Beltline. Atlanta, GA.
City Hall Plaza. Durham, NC.
Waterfront Seattle. Seattle, WA.
SoWa Southie Plaza. Boston, MA.
Fourth Ward. Houston, TX.
New Orleans, LA.
The Metro (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota)