Speak Up Collage

James Wimberg was born and raised in Connecticut, USA. As a child he loved art and was always drawing in sketchbooks. His interest in photography began during high school with “photo safaris” around his hometown of Old Lyme. Taking pictures of collapsing barns, moody landscapes and interesting things in nature helped him develop his eye for light and composition. After college Jim moved to Los Angeles to pursue commercial and fine art photography. Jim’s artistic influences include: Robert Rauschenberg, David Carson, Frank Ockenfels 3, Robert Heinecken, Jerry Uelsmann and Man Ray. “I am inspired by the fragmented, textural and layered images as seen in the mixed media works of Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Ockenfels 3 and Robert Heinecken. In addition to these artists, I’m drawn to the use of type in the work of David Carson’s collages. The combination of these ingredients is the jumping off point for my work." "In my ongoing photography series Graffiti Train, I shoot double exposures on outdated film using a low-tech, toy camera with a plastic lens. The results are always unknown until the film comes back from the lab. I love the layering of colors, paint strokes and type in the images. They are like abstract paintings with incredible depth and mysterious meanings. The current series of collages I’m working on was born out of a strong desire to create during COVID19 isolation in the spring of 2021. I had just purchased David Carson’s book “nu collage.001” and was struck by his beautiful collage work. His work became a source of inspiration for me and remains so to this day. Some of the images in my collages are my photography, but most are ripped from magazines."