John Hesketh

John Hesketh (b.1955) is an artist based in Laguna Niguel, California. Interested in the improvisational narrative of the extended moment.

John uses multiple and long exposures, often working in front of the camera to perform with light, to explore his relationship to family, community and our rituals of belonging.

John has taught photography at Orange Coast College for 30 years and more recently at Santa Monica College. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. His art is found in many public and private collections including Principal Financial (Des Moines, IA), the California Museum of Photography at UC Riverside, Maison Europeenne de la Photographie (Ville de Paris), and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

The Presence of Absence

She was editing her first novel while taking chemo.  Our personal lives had become very small between the brain fog and the rewrites.  She inspired me to explore as many worlds of color as I could find in a single stucco wall of the house.  Our conversations, as artists, shifted between the success of her book and exploring my images that would not blend with color.

After her passing, I returned to the wall to finish our conversation.  The images we had talked about became my passage of grief.  A meditation on the presence of her absence.  The project spoke without color, far from its original intent. These black and white images coalesced into a language of light to find my way back.

With time, the colors returned to define my release, bringing the project full cycle to its original conceit.  Transformed by forgiveness and acceptance, luminous layers now blend with fresh colors sampled photographically from my new garden.  Now with a palette of sweet peas, iris, dahlias, and English rose, I can embrace her absence, grateful for her presence that lingers within my life.