WARNER WADA
Warner Wada is a New York based photographer, painter, documentary filmmaker and professor. As a graduate of Yale his passion for art and architecture, has in turn, fueled his love for photography. Along with heading the visual arts department at Ramapo College of New Jersey, Wada also founded design partnership Burning Relic, where he worked alongside many influential figures in the fashion, art and music world, including Donna Karan, Yohji Yamamoto, Lou Reed and more. He began by uniquely experimenting with pinhole photography, through his photographs of the Mayan ruins or “ruinas” in Quintana Roo, Mexico, followed by a photo series of the famous ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Wada describes how he chooses his subjects. One of his exhibitions, “Works in Progress: Meadowlands-A Post Industrial Resurrection was inspired by his daily commute from New York City to New Jersey’s Meadowlands area, just beyond the Lincoln Tunnel.
Wada emphatically describes the photo series as a tribute to the “beautifully rebounding natural richness and post industrial complexity of the Meadowlands.” He is deeply interested in the contradictory nature of environments. This isn’t the first time Warner has created art based on the Meadowlands. His documentary film Muskrat John, is a touching tribute to the area, featuring New Jersey fisherman Johnny Rohweder who, even in his late 80’s, carries on fishing in the shadow of the New York City Skyscrapers.
His most recent work, is a one-person exhibit of his black and white photography, showcasing Pittsburgh in the 1970’s all the way up to modern-day New York City. Warner reveals, what makes this particular exhibition so special, is the reward of comparing and contrasting his earlier photographs to his more recent ones of New York City. We look forward to discovering which subject and medium Warner will utilize next.