By John Pluntze

[Editor Note: Click here for some more examples of James Bourret's photography.]

In a very real sense, FOX's hit musical-comedy series, "Glee," led to my latest "Where ART Thou?" column -- on Ketchum photographer (and architect) James Bourret -- or rather his avid, self-confessed "Gleek" of a wife, Lucy, led me there, anyway!! (Type the word "Glee" into the SVO search engine here to see what I mean).

You see, months ago I was happily and eagerly writing a series of very popular SVO music articles for sunvalleyonline.com about the whole worldwide "Glee" phenomenon -- including how there are sooooo many people right here in the Wood River Valley, like myself, who are now hopelessly and unceasingly smitten with that endlessly inventive and extremely entertaining TV show (it was nominated just the other day for 19 Emmys, btw, the second highest of any TV program this year -- SO THERE!!!).

Well ... somewhere along the way, I met and began talking with Lucy Bourret, who is a verrry avid "Gleek" herself (i.e., a verrry avid fan of "Glee"), whom I had every intention of talking with at some point about why she, and their three kids, all love that FOX show so much (James, I guess, maybe not so much -- dunno).

Well, for a variety of reasons, THAT never happened. But what DID happen is that Lucy Bourret somewhere along the way learned that in addition to writing a regular ("Harmonic Convergence") music column for SVO, I also often write a ("Where ART Thou?") art column for them as well, at which point she excitedly told me that her husband, James, was a "really terrific" photographer whom I might wanna meet and talk with one of these days...

... Which&nbs p;is what I happily did -- just last week as a matter of fact!

Now, regular readers of my "WAT?" column (yessss, all three of you!!!) know already that I am AT LEAST as hopelessly enamoured and otherwise smitten with b&w photography as I am with b&W movies (or FOX's "Glee" series, too, for that matter); I could easily spend the rest of this year endlessly raving over those amazingly sumptuous and inspiringly soulful b&w photos of Thia Konig's, another verrry gifted Ketchum photographer whom I eagerly profiled in one of my "Where ART Thou?" columns last year.

Or Kirk Anderson, too, for that matter.

Just incredible what those two do with film!!!

And I have to say now, that photographer James Bourret ( http://jamesbourret.photoshelter.com/http://web.mac.com/jamesbourret ) strikes me as being very much in the same vein. In fact, it's a verrrry radiant testament to just how MUCH I genuinely enjoyed perusing his gallery recently -- it's located right between the Clarion Inn and that new Bluebird Day Cafe (formerly the site of The Rustic Moose) -- that I quickly jettisoned the notion of making up some spur-of-the-moment excuse there for being able to spend less time at his photo studio than I'd originally planned, in order to sneakily grab some breakfast next door at the Bluebird (before I had to head off to my second job that morning).

Bourret grew up in the Bay Area, and both he and Lucy (and their three kids, I guess, also) spent many years happily and eagerly traipsing through the Sierras, and elsewhere, in California, before they decided that maybe the nature-oriented offerings of Idaho were more for them.

Bourret's had his Clarion Inn studio there for some five years now, but he only just recently began emphasizing his photography work there over his architectural-design work -- I guess, 'cuz there isn't exactly a plethora of new houses (or buildings) being built here in the Valley right now.

"I always loved outdoor wilderness and naturescape photographs," Bourret told me last week, as he was proudly showing me around his studio at 8:15 a.m. in the morning, "And my nature photography over the years has led me into other directions -- trying to explore really abstract imagery -- which a lot of times is much more creative and interesting for me, and it often ends up making my landscape photos much richer because of it."

Indeed, walking around Bourret's Ketchum gallery last week, taking those notoriously-"copious notes" of mine, I was immediately struck by the often stark contrasts between his lovely and colorful photos of places I could readily identify (Easley, The Elephant's Perch, Moab, Zion and Arches National Parks, the Salmon River, Baldy, Upper Board Ranch, Pioneer Cabin, Bruneau Sand Dunes, the Shoshone Ice Caves, Corral Creek, etc) with these often verrrrrrrry trippy-looking, abstract b&w photos that Bourret has taken as well (one series is called "Winter's Veil" and deals with ice ... but several of the photos in that particular series instead actually reminded me immediately of Death Valley's Zabriskie Point!).

Bourret also has a bunch of what I sometimes call those "blur-motion" color photographs (Marybeth Flower has a number of them, too; they're currently on display at St Luke's here in the Valley), which basically involves sweeping the camera horizontally back and forth while you're taking a photograph of something (or someone), a process that ultimately gives your finished photographs the look of a PAINTING, instead.

How seriously kick-ass cool is THAT, people?!?!

One of the many, many things I quickly came to love about Bourret's work is that he deliberately doesn't include much in the way of descriptions of his photos -- instead preferring the viewer to come up with their own interpretation (s) of what they're looking at. (Some of the titles he came up with for his "blur-motion" photos include: "Water & Rocks," "Reflections," "Aspen Trunks," "River Bank," and "Last Leaves.")

Likening it to a Grand Priz auto race ("As a photographer, I was always much more interested in the BlUR than in any of the CARS!"), Bourret told me that his underlying goal with these various "Blur-motion" and unabashedly Expressionistic photographs is to create a certain "tension," "emotion," "drama" and "excitement" in things that ordinarily can often seem to be rather static and stationary otherwise. 

Another sort of "tension" and "emotion," etc, that Bourret adroitly instills in some of his many works (btw, a number of his very beautiful "Winter Veil" b&w photographs were published in the March-April, 2009 "LensWork" magazine: www.lenswork.com ) involves using a PAPER SHREDDER, of all things!!! He has a number of photos there at his studio of various books, magazines, etc, that he dutifully shredded, and then photographed; one is comprised of the Sunday "New York Times" (never exactly my favorite newspaper, anyway, so good on ya, James!!! (LOL), another is of the "Physician's Desk Reference" (Bourret's canny way of questioning the importance and legitimacy of Western medicine).

Ostensibly, that particular photo series is more or less "recycling"-oriented in nature (although personally, if I was Lucy and I came home to find my husband happily and eagerly -- and, let's face it, also sort a weeee bit bizarrely, too -- shredding the "Physicians Desk Reference," I'd probaby take the kids and go to my mother's house, but hey that's just me!!), but Bourret was emphatic that he NOT get pigeon-holed into a particular type of photography, and/or a series of photographs, even though some art galleries clearly want that sort of thing.

"There's never been a strongly commercial aspect to my photography ... but especially where the flora and fauna photos are concerned, if I can capture some of the fear and mystery of early-childhood nature experiences, I'm doing something very right, I think" Bourret said, adding that, "It's very easy to sometimes find yourself falling into a rut as an artist -- doing the same thing over and over again -- which is why I keep forcing myself to try new types of photography, and hopefully see things in an entirely new way in the process."

Bourret acquired his first digital camera in 2004, but he's been practicing his photography on a regular basis since 1983, and those many years of devotion to it are very much in evidence in many of the photos he has on display there at his well-organized Ketchum studio/office (he's had a couple of very successful shows in years past at The Open Room in Ketchum, btw).

Whether it's tire tracks (Santa Cruz, California) or a corrugated tin roof (Mackay) or gorgeous, fall-foliaged trees (Hulen Meadows) or early-morning snowmaking (Dollar Mountain) or lenticulars (Lake Tahoe), Bourret repeatedly demonstrates a genuine knack for vividly capturing the quiet beauty of nature in all its many forms -- both in his classic, naturescape works, and also, more subtlety, in his often boldly-original and -challenging Expressionistic works as well.

Well, I for one, certainly saw things in an "entirely new way" after I visited James Bourret's Ketchum studio last week, and I sincerely hope that you do, also. He has everything from very affordable and eye-catching photo notecards there to much larger (and pricier) wall hangings, and pretty much everything in between as well. (Just be sure NOT to bring any books or magazines that you value with you, 'cuz you just KNOW that James there will want to shred 'em the second your back is turned!!! (LOL)

Contact Bourret at 725-5801/ 2jbourret@cox-internet.com to arrange a showing at his Ketchum art gallery/architectural firm.

The ongoing goal of this "Where ART Thou?" column is to make Art more accessible to people here in this Valley of ours who, for whatever reason (s), tend to SHY AWAY from it, and James Bourret seems to genuinely and proudly embrace that ongoing goal, which makes me very happy that I was able to feature his work here today (Bourret's verrrrry obvious and disturbing paper-shredding fetish, notwithstanding, that is!!!)
************************************************ 
Questions or comments regarding this 'Where ART Thou?" column can be sent to John at: WriteStuffIdaho@gmail.com .And to read any of John's previous "WAT?" columns -- which include writeups on local artists such as Narda Pitkethly, Tessa Bradley, Thia Konig, Kirk Anderson, Gay Odmark, Brent Haleen and 11-year-old Ashley Dreyfus, and on local art galleries such as the David M. Norton, the Kneeland, the Gail Severn, the Gilman Contemporary, Tribes Interiors, and The Loft (in Hailey) -- simply type "Music Rules" (and also "John Pluntze") into the SVO search engine here.