Transmitter presents:
Angle of Incidence by J.B. Morton
On View: February 7–March 8, 2026
Opening Reception Saturday, Feb 7, 5-8 PM
J.B. Morton’s photographs are not tranquil landscapes; they are an exacting look at nature, wherever found - the curbside of a favorite Brooklyn pizzeria or in the backyard of suburban Long Island. The pictures get to the matter of composition - unpredictable rhythms of flowing line, repeating but never the same, or the specific quality of light and shade as it changes in different weather and times of day. Nature, as J.B. Morton sees it is never a collection of soporific effects, but rather a constant reminder of dynamic change.
Morton’s environmental inquiry continues beyond what is visible in a black and white photograph, bringing a focus that moves into the cellular with his cyanotype Grain Pictures. In a process between craft and science, wooden shavings (the detritus of his job as a picture framer) are contact printed using simple photographic methods. These translucent organic curves appear as if suspended in a frozen brook with sediment passing through, bringing to mind the flow of thoughts themselves.
The artist writes: “I make pictures from both the distance of a camera and the directness of materials. The transience of nature and history is set into the static, synthetic unity of the image. My art develops out of conditions where culture closes in upon nature so universally that we risk forgetting the imperatives of our material grounds.”
It is in these material things, cast between found and made, that Morton draws out how our tools (art included) become us. Each picture attempts to narrow the gap between observation and material engagement through a process of mimetic transformation.
J.B. Morton is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, and a BA in History and Environmental Science from Union College, Schenectady, NY. He was the recipient of a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Recent exhibitions include a three-person show at The Neon Heater, Findlay, OH and a two-person show at Candid Arts Trust, London, UK. Group presentations include the Robinson Photography Biennial at The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art and Rising Waters: Photographs of Sandy at the Museum of the City of New York.