Joshua Jensen-Nagle (born in Washington, New Jersey) is a Contemporary Photographer, recognized as a prominent Canadian Artist after completing his studies at Ryerson University, School of Image Arts in 2005 and establishing his career in Toronto. Best known for his dreamy large-scale images, Jensen-Nagle’s immersive and often experimental photographs invite viewers to lose themselves within the works, with the intention to capture a feeling and evoke emotion, rather than to simply document a reality.
Joshua has mounted over fifty exhibitions in the last seventeen years. Highlighted art fair presence includes Art Toronto, Photo London, Art Miami, Context Art Miami, Pulse Miami, Scope Miami, Art New York, Art Palm Beach, and Art Market San Francisco. He has placed his photographs in numerous private and corporate collections including Four Seasons, Microsoft, Maple Leaf, Master Card International, Target, Transcontinental and Hilton Hotels, and has been featured in a variety of publications, including Art In America, Canadian Art, Globe and Mail, House and Home, Fashion and Toronto Life.
In this video, Joshua discusses his life as a photographer and artist. He reminisces about his childhood days spent along the New Jersey shore, and how this time impacted his largest series to date, Endless Summer. He is filmed photographing from different vantage points, often in a helicopter to capture his arresting birds-eye views.
In his early work, Joshua utilized polaroid film and masterfully experimented with the latest in digital photography equipment, working with complex layering techniques involving paint, smoke, postcards, cut-outs in glass jars, and even glitter in fish tanks of food colouring. In the film, he takes you through some of his more recent series, including Sunsets and Fireworks where he rephotographs his sunset imagery with fireworks being lit off in the foreground. He also walks the viewer through Pieces of You where he focuses his lens on small components of other artists, designers and architects work, glorifying it in large scale and explains his drive to push himself to experiment beyond the traditional style of documentary photography, using his camera as a means to capture a feeling.
“My work explores the use of photography as a medium to create, with the intention to capture a feeling, rather than to document a reality.”