Night Photography nominee

The journey we're on is a quest into the unknown. We cannot know where we are going, nor where we've been without seeing where we are. We can only see so far in the present, seeing alone toward the gift to be grateful. With all that life gives us, we realize that each chapter reveals who we indeed are and what life is all about.⁠
⁠"Light of Life" is the adventure that others and myself have gone through and are persisting. In the true beauty that is nature, we can see our stories lit up in front of us—a journey into the lives of many.⁠

Jesse Vance (Born 1991, Penticton, Canada) began photographing in 2009. His initial primary interest was not photography or a specific art medium, but rather it was to work in the film industry as a technician. Years of working in that field spurred his interest in shooting landscape photographs. Vance first explored panoramas with high contrast scenes. He later transitioned to a conceptual approach, with more involved compositions and lower contrast, described as painterly and soft. The intention was to create a sense of relaxation, as if exhaling in a single breath — the embodiment of what Vance is as a person.

With passion and expertise, Vance creates prints to hang at home before they appear at a gallery. He believes the real joy of the process is the final print, and it is for that reason he creates this work. The satisfaction of the workflow process to final print continually motivates his desire to create, appreciate the work and share it with others. He seeks to reproduce the emotion felt at the location, and conjures a particular story in his mind about what might have existed.

Vance’s work has been submitted to numerous international competitions.