Cynara - Limited Edition 1 of 20 Photograph

J. Heroun is a contemporary American artist living and working in the United States. He received foundational training in classical figurative drawing and painting at the prestigious New York Academy of Art and The Art Students’ League. He has worked for more than two decades as a Creative Director in New York City. Mr. Heroun honed his conceptual vision by directing many of the world’s preeminent photographers and illustrators to create incisive visuals imbued with metaphor and meaning. He’s been awarded by the Society of Publication Designers and the City & Regional Magazine Association; and nominated for General Excellence by ASME, the prestigious American Society of Magazine Editors, for his publication design work. Before his work in magazines, Heron was elected to the Society of Illustrators. His personal work appeared in East Village group shows, including On Edge: The Emerging Underground at the Filmore East. During his early years in New York he designed and produced fanzines for alternative radio station WFMU and punk fashion retailer Patricia Field. His hyper-stylized portrait work is in the collection of Aveda founder Horst Rechelbacher (d. 2014). Pivoting to photography in later years, Heron studied under Connie Imboden at the Maine Photography Workshop and learned traditional black and white darkroom printing at Northeastern University in Boston. He also studied portrait lighting, video production, and street shooting under Natan Dvir at The International Center of Photography in New York. His show titled Seeing the World: Street Life in Urban America was exhibited at the Boston Public Library. He is currently working on a series of collections titled The Portrait Botanical, in which he imbues flowers with human emotion and desire. Each high-resolution photograph combines layers of images with a focus stacking technique, resulting in color prints 48x48 inches and larger.