Peter Ydeen
Peter Ydeen (born September 19, 1957) is an American artist and photographer. He is best known for the photographic series Easton Nights (2016—present).[1]
| Peter Ydeen | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1959 Fort Belvoir, Virginia |
| 🏫 Education | Brooklyn College/ Virginia Tech |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Easton Nights |
| 🌐 Website | https://peterydeen.com/ |
Life
Ydeen was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, the youngest of five children. His father was an Army officer. Ydeen received a BA from Virginia Tech, where he studied under Ray Kass, and an MFA in painting and sculpture from Brooklyn College. His professors included Phillip Pearlstein, Lee Bontecou and Alan D'Arcangelo. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and was a fellow at the Sculpture Center in New York City. After graduating, Ydeen worked a variety of jobs in the advertising, architecture, and film industries. He lives in Easton, Pennsylvania with his wife Mei li.[1]
Works
Before moving into photography, Ydeen concentrated on sculpture and painting. According to an interview with Ydeen, his early training in landscape painting taught him to see "relationships between shapes, interactions between colors, natural rhythms, cadence, and patterns," which resurfaced in his urban landscape photography. This became his primary medium in 2014.[2]
On this transition into photography, Ydeen has stated:
“My conversion to night photography was natural and unexpected, though I quickly became obsessed with it. I did a few shots for a show on night photography in California, and it took off from there. It wasn’t planned, which is why it worked out, as anything I do plan inevitably doesn’t. Why it appeals to me is something I have analyzed in hindsight. When I was studying painting there was an underlying idea that painting should be two dimensional and flat. The art critic Clement Greenberg was still influential and was a proponent of that idea. I still have a tendency in day photography to do flat composed images that read as a single object. Night photography, however, lends itself to coming inside the frame. It naturally presents itself as a shared experience, where the viewer comes into the image together with the photographer.[3]
He began working in landscape photography internationally in North Africa and then in Central Europe, Mexico, and China. In his series Waiting for Palms, he photographed urban landscapes in Central Morocco and along the Nile River basin. The series was a finalist for the best photo essay from the Maghreb Photography Awards and was published in Photo/Foto Magazine.[4][5]
Ydeen also began photographing urban landscapes in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, an area uniquely characterized by the convergence of small towns. His daytime photographs turned into the series Valley Days. Easton Nights, his most popular work, was inspired by photographer George Tice and examines the Lehigh Valley at night.[6][7]
In an interview, Ydeen describes why he chose the Lehigh Valley:
The Lehigh Valley, where Easton sits, has a population of almost one million people. Despite this, there is no downtown. Instead, it is a sea of over 150 cities, towns and different populated areas. There is not one Main Street, but instead many, and countless intricate microcosms and varied nationalities. Its history starts before the creation of this country and has gone through many highs and lows, being the home to many industries, and important personalities; and still, it is vibrant and growing. It is not a bedroom community for a larger place, but has its own personality, serving as a living museum of small town America.[8]
Easton Nights is characterized by quiet, unpopulated scenes and the use of artificial light such as streetlamps and commercial signs with themes of romance within the mundane and ephemeral.[9][3]
About Easton Nights, Ydeen says, "I am drawn to the romance and drama the darkness reveals. We light our urban areas just like a stage would be lit for film, maybe it is the other way around, but in either case, it makes places which would barely get a glance turn into something magical."[3]
Exhibitions
- Seeing Comes Before Words, Prism Contemporary, Blackburn, UK, 2018 (with Lee Smillie).
- Easton Nights, Brick and Mortar Gallery, Easton, PA, 2018.
- Easton Nights, Saint Joseph University Galleries, Philadelphia, PA, 2018.
- "Valley Days," Easton Nights, The Galleries at the State Theater, Easton, PA, 2019.
- "Dreams" Selections from the series Easton Nights, DeSoto Family Vault, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA, 2019-2020.
- Easton Nights, Sykes Gallery, Millersville University, Millersville, PA, 2020.
- Easton Nights, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA, 2020.
- Easton Nights, Noyes Museum, The Arts Garage, Atlantic City, NJ, 2021.
- Gasfield, Bremen, Germany, 2021.
- Colorida Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal, 2021.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Peter Ydeen: Easton Nights | Internationalphotomag". Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- ↑ "Peter Ydeen". LoosenArt. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "In Conversation With Peter Ydeen". Street Photography. 2020-06-11. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- ↑ "Maghreb Photography Awards - Photo Contest - Entry". maghrebphotographyawards.com. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- ↑ Magazine, Photo/Foto (2016-12-10). "Editorial: Morocco by Peter Ydeen". Photo/Foto Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- ↑ "Peter Ydeen". PHROOM. 2020-10-28. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- ↑ "Dreams by Peter Ydeen, Nov 2019". Susquehanna Art Museum. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- ↑ "Peter Ydeen, Easton Nights | Landscape Stories". magazine.landscapestories.net. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- ↑ "Dreams: Selections from Easton Nights by Peter Ydeen". B&W Minimalism Magazine. 2020-01-12. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
Peter Ydeen (photographer)
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