Ron Jude is an American photographer and educator, born in Los Angeles in 1965 and raised in rural Idaho. He lives and works in Eugene, Oregon, where he teaches photography as a professor of art at the University of Oregon. His recent work explores the relationship between place, memory, and narrative through multiple approaches ranging from the use of appropriated images to photographs that echo traditional documentary methodologies.
Ron earned a BFA in studio art from Boise State University in 1988, and an MFA from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge in 1992. His photographs have been widely exhibited nationally and internationally and are held in the permanent collections of the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.
Ron is the author of ten books, including Emmett (2010); Lick Creek Line (2012); Lago (2015); and, most recently, 12Hz. He has received grants or awards from Light Work; San Francisco Camerawork; the Aaron Siskind Foundation; and the Friends of Photography and was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2019. He is represented by Gallery Luisotti in Santa Monica and Robert Morat Galerie in Berlin.
Ron lives in Eugene with fellow photographer Danielle Mericle and their son Charley.
On episode 153, Ron discusses, among other things:
- Why he switched to digital for 12Hz
- Not wanting to romanticise the landscape
- Feeling like it was a risk
- Not intending to make a book and then actually making a book
- His interest in incorporating sound
- Lago and other books
- How working with images that weren’t his taught him a lot about the book making process
- Lick Creek Line
- Why he doesn’t photograph people
- Nausea and the inherent flaws in the education system
- Why metaphor should be deployed with caution
Referenced:
“To some degree it’s just practice. It’s like playing an instrument - you practice, and if you don’t practice you get rusty. And then you have to start all over again.”