John Chiara

Using cameras he has designed and built himself, John Chiara’s inventive techniques, such as shooting directly onto positive color photographic paper, leave behind visible traces of his process. The resulting works of art invite us to contemplate their content while pointing to the chemical aspects of their creation. The subtle streaking, overexposure and sharpening of detail Chiara achieves in his work amplify a sense of disassociation, and remind us of landscape photography’s continued potential.

Chiara has applied his signature style to the distinctive architecture of San Francisco’s dwellings and commercial thoroughfares, as well as scenic waterfront vistas taken along the Northern California coast, capturing light and the movement of water with remarkable clarity. In 2022, Chiara was invited by the San Francisco Arts Commission to document the redevelopment taking shape on nearby Treasure and Yerba Buena Islands. Without editorializing, his images draw our attention to shifting elements of the landscape and tell a thoughtful, complex story about the changing urban terrain.

In addition to the SFAC’s Treasure Island Photo Documentation Project (2022-2023), Chiara was an artist-in-residence at Fundaziun Naris, Scuol, Switzerland (2020); Art Factory Budapest, Hungary (2017); Crown Point Press, San Francisco (2016, 2006); and Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin, CA (2010). His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at Denver Art Museum, CO; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum Bürengasse, Zurich, Switzerland; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA; Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA; Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, CA; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA; and Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK. Institutions that collect his work include the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Pilara Foundation Collection, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, CA; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. John Chiara: California, a monographic publication of his work, was published by Aperture Books in 2017.