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Individual Artist Fellowship in Photography Recipient: Jonathan Rodgers

By Krishna Adams, Director of Visual Arts, Craft, Media, and Design –

Jonathan Rodgers

Nashville resident Jonathan Rodgers is the recipient of the Individual Artist Fellowship (IAF) in Photography. The Tennessee Arts Commission awards IAFs annually to recognize and acknowledge outstanding professional artists living and working in Tennessee who, through their work, add to the state’s cultural vitality.

Rodgers’ photographic odyssey started when a dusty Nikkormat FT2 camera emerged from a closet at age thirteen. His parents supported his newfound enthusiasm by signing him up for photography and darkroom classes. A poetic symmetry unfolded as that same closet eventually became his personal darkroom, a testament to his growing passion.

Rodgers relocated to Nashville from Lexington, Kentucky in 1998. Though always armed with a camera, his career path was diverse before he established his shower curtain business. Naturally, his first job was in a camera store. During his twenties, he traded his camera for a journalist’s notebook, capturing the allure of Mayan ruins in Guatemala’s Petén jungle for National Geographic. His travels also took him to Uganda and Haiti for other publications. When not exploring the world, he balanced his passion for photography with roles in retail and education.

Rodgers earned a Bachelor of Music degree with a cello focus from Vanderbilt University in 2002. His photographic talents were showcased in his first solo exhibition featuring images from Uganda in 2004. Between 2010 and 2019, he returned to his alma mater to teach digital and film photography at the Sarratt Gallery. Concurrently, Rodgers pursued a Master of Science in Public Policy from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, graduating in 2015.

Knights Inn, Nashville, TN, June 2022

During the pandemic, Rodgers discovered his mission, “Beauty everywhere; for Everyone!” and came up with the plan to stop taking pictures and start making views. He began exploring multi-exposure photography, a technique that is a favorite among surrealist photographers. Rodgers explains “I work exclusively in camera; photoshop only for basic levels and saturation across the entire image. Anything in my photos that looks processed probably is, however, it is pre-processed and not post-processing. Before each exposure is made, I adjust the aperture and shutter speed and ISO appropriate to my subject. I also manipulate film emulation and white balance as well as entertain color shifts. I flip and flop my camera upside down and over and under until it looks cool! I can do this up to nine times, locking in each exposure as I go. It takes as little as a few minutes up to an hour to make each photo. I also utilize a large format 100-megapixel digital camera.”      

Horse, El Cuyo, Yucatan, February 2022

After a 14-year part-time stint in public health, he made a career pivot earlier this year. Fully immersed in photography, he launched his own shower curtain label. Using his surrealist-inspired images, he transforms large-scale fine art into everyday home decor. These washable, foldable, and lightweight shower curtains allow him to showcase his work at its intended size of six by six feet while offering an affordable, accessible product to customers.

With the IAF award he plans to sample out more surreal shower curtains with images he captured in his recent travels through West Virginia and a return trip to Uganda. He will also purchase more printing supplies to create large photo stickers.

The Tennessee Arts Commission will be featuring his photography in a solo virtual exhibition from April 4, 2025–May 30, 2025.* You can learn more about Rodgers’ work on his website.

*The FY24 Visual Arts adjudicator was unaware of Rodgers’ upcoming exhibition at the Tennessee Arts Commission.