John Charles Dean is an Atlanta-based photographer and master printer. His most recent series of photographs were created during the global COVID-19 pandemic. He spent much of his free time hiking and camping in quiet wilderness areas, far away from urbanism, primarily in the mountains. This work references and is inspired by the quiet power and the hidden flows of energy in the natural world we experience there. These still life works are made from straight photographs of various folded Asian printmaking papers used as the subject matter. The visual flow and sculptural qualities of the imagery is created and influenced by the way the forms are lit in the studio, with the light coming from the bottom, sides, and top. These prints are not parametric digitally created forms executed with computer software algorithms. They are rather the product of folding and carefully lighting various physical paper media, and through this, creating imaginary panoramas that reflect the unconscious landscapes that we carry within us. They represent the architecture of the felt but unseen rhythms of nature. John has a BFA in art photography / art history, from the University of Arizona in Tucson and an MFA in art photography from Tyler School of Art of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the mid 1970's John studied contemporary art at Antioch College West in San Francisco. In the late 1970's and early 1980’s John studied photography with the internationally recognized artists, Todd Walker, William Larson, Larry Fink, and Esther Parada. In Arizona, he also took classes with the great American artists, W. Eugene Smith and James Turrell, both of who taught him that everything in photography comes from light. John’s work is represented in the collections of The Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, the Museum Of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Yale University rare prints collection, the Kling architectural photography collection Philadelphia, the San Francisco Camerawork artist's book collection, Clarence John Laughlin’s personal collection, and the Greenberg Traurig and Bunnen Collections in Atlanta.