Jonathan Saunders and the Anniversary of Choice

On July 11, 2006, Saunders and a love were faced with making a choice that would forever change the trajectory of their lives. They made their choice together - and that evening, Saunders made another pivotal decision: He would mark that significant moment the following year, on the exact date, with the promise to himself, “I will spend the day creating something at the limits of my ability.”

Saunders has kept that oath every July 11 since, producing an ever-growing body of work, each anniversary approached differently in terms of tools, techniques, planning, and happenstance.

The Gallery @ Dot Editions partnered with Jonathan for his first ever exhibition that opened on October 11, 2019, a show that featured the images created entirely on the 10th anniversary - DIES LUNAE XI JULIUS MMXVI.

For DIES LUNAE XI JULIUS MMXVI, images were built using a mosaic technique comprised of a series of captures and exposures that were later stitched together to create a single image. This body of work was made in the Coso Mountain Range of California, and along the edge of a burned periphery of the Sequoia National Forest. Having scouted the locations briefly once months ahead of time, Saunders traveled to the area on July 10, 2016, set his tools in the darkness of the desert, and waited. At 12:00:30 AM on July 11, he began.

In presenting this body of work we want the feeling to be such that people are invited into the environments where the work was conceived. Taking cues from the rocky outcrops and sprawling trees on display, the arrangement itself utilizes the space to present the work in a series of distinct formations.

Large-scale pieces dominate the show invoking a sense of overwhelm in confronting the structures and desolation.

Opening night

Photographer Burk Uzzle visiting the gallery

Further, a video room with blacked out walls focuses the senses on a reel of images spanning the project’s lifetime and accompanying sound bites that place the viewer in situ.

It is our hope that everyone who visits the show walks away having enjoyed both viewing and experiencing the work.   

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About the artist 

Jonathan Saunders is a moving and still image creator and educator with more than 25 years of professional experience. After growing up an Air Force and then corporate brat, Saunders has spent the bulk of his adult years in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco, with occasional detours through Texas. Currently living in Asheville, North Carolina, he is unconcerned with where to go next or any real sense of time other than passing dates. His work has been honored by The International Photobook Festival (twice), The Webby Awards, Communication Arts, American Photography, Graphis, Photo District News, The New York Times, The Eddie Adams Workshop Barnstorm Award (at age 20), and Jörg Colberg’s Conscientious Photography Magazine Book of the Year List (twice for the annual XI JULIUS project).

Since his youth, Saunders has been obsessed with the history of photography, the technology of photography, and the pursuit of his own relationships within these two overlaps. TIME, People, Forbes, Fortune, Texas Monthly, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Bloomberg, and many more have occasionally interrupted his workflow and gifted him the chance to create icons on their pages. The Rochester Institute of Technology awarded Saunders his BFA based on merit, 14 years after he began and then shortly wandered off to create.