It’s been 12 years since photographer Justin Terveen has done a solo show in town. That’s because he’s been all over the country finding new landscapes to shoot and share with his followers and fans.
“I’ve been doing a lot of traveling over the last couple of years, and I wanted to put something together that I haven’t done before,” Terveen says.
Kettle Art will host a solo exhibition of Terveen’s new, unreleased work on Saturday, Nov. 25, called “Away From My Desk,” which shows some of the most unique places and people he’s come across during his time in and out of town.
The exhibition includes almost two decades of Terveen’s work from every corner of his career. Kettle Art’s walls will have works of all shapes and sizes, from the huge, breathtaking urban landscapes to the smaller, more intimate portraits that helped build Terveen’s career.
“There’s some more personal photographs,” Terveen says. “It might make you laugh. It might make you cry. It depends on who you see and what you see.”
The collection is also a bit “experimental” since it also features some of Terveen’s first photographs that have never been released. He says he wants people to see the scope of his passion and drive that has fueled his career from the very beginning.
“It’s experimental in the sense that I was brand new with the camera,” he says. “It was a new thing for me. A lot of passion was involved, so it’s kind of a more pure artform, I guess.”
Terveen always had an eye and ear for art, even as a kid. When his family pushed him to participate in sports, he found pursuing artistic achievements more rewarding and challenging.
“I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it,” he says. “It snowballed from there, and I went pro after a couple of years.”
Even though he’s been traveling more, Deep Ellum has been his home for the last 25 years. Neighborhoods like Deep Ellum have also been his subjects in his photographs.
“The work consisted of lots of street shooting, just running around and taking pictures of the city, and that can entail anything and everything,” Terveen says. “Dallas used to have a lot of cool, empty skyscrapers. It’s grown so much, it’s insane.”
Some of Terveen’s earliest works started making the rounds on the burgeoning Internet through sites and forums like DallasMetropolis.com. His photographs caught the attention of people like reporter Robert Wilonsky and some Dallas city council members. Some of Terveen’s shots of the Dallas skyline are the most viewed images of the city outside Google Maps. He seems to know and find just the right place and time to shoot the Dallas city skyline so his camera can capture vibrant colors and angles that feel otherworldly even if the buildings are recognizable.
“It’s nice to be able to slow down and work on finding beauty in places where you usually don’t find beauty,” he says. “I hear that all the time. ‘You make Dallas seem cooler than it is.’ This is Dallas. You just have to go out and look for it and have an open mind.”
Finding connections to a city also requires connecting to the people in it, especially if their stories don’t paint a rosy picture of the cities they inhabit. Some of Terveen’s earliest and most memorable work includes photographs of homeless people and the communities they built in the city.
“I guess I was a little bit more social back then, so it was easier for me to approach people,” Terveen says. “They’re part of the fabric of cities, and frankly, some of them have some pretty incredible stories. A lot of people don’t see it, but they have some pretty heavy stories and imagery. Adding that human connection, it really makes for a special story.”
One of Terveen’s first subjects was a homeless man named Rusty, whom he first met in Pegasus Plaza. Terveen says he got to know Rusty, a veteran who fought through miles of red tape for years to get the benefits he earned.
“He tried to catch my attention,” Terveen says. “I thought he wanted money or cigarettes. He said, ‘Man, I don’t want money. I want you to drink a soda with me.’ I had kind of an attitude change, a mental shift in how I viewed these people, and I followed that guy for years.”
Terveen says Rusty altered his perceptions about people from the moment they met.
“When he finally got his benefits from the [Veterans’ Administration], he bought an RV and was gonna tour the world,” Terveen says. “Then he dropped dead of a heart attack. I got some gut-wrenching images of that guy.”
During his recent travels, he’s been doing more than just shooting landscapes. He’s also been chasing storms on the road, not just for the photographs. He says something he’s just been doing “for sport,” but his weather photographs have also become some of his most popular works.
“You’re exploring and traveling and road-tripping,” he says. “It’s all rolled into one crazy sport, and seeing these storms out on the plains, there’s nothing like that. It’s just something that many people don’t get to see.”
In a way, that’s really Terveen’s job and what every great photographer should hope to achieve with their exhibitions: capturing images that most people don’t have access, the time, or the patience to see on their own. Great photography isn’t about capturing the best version of someone or something. Terveen’s portraits are all about capturing what’s there, even if we are not able to see it.
“I’m nervous about it being as good as I want it to be,” he says. “I’m putting this much out there. I just hope people like it. At the same time, it’s out of my hands, and I’m not sweating it. I’m just hoping people like it and will buy some stuff, of course.”
Justin Terveen’s “Away From My Desk” exhibition runs from 2-5 p.m. Nov. 25, at Kettle Art Gallery on 2650-B Main St.
