Summer HHS Winner: Ernie Button
Grape Nuts Dune #7
Summer Edition Hey, Hot Shot! Winner 2006
Ernie Button
Currently residing in Phoenix, AZ
Work Statement
Photography has undeniably changed the way I see the world; how I look at individuals, places, or objects. When looking through the camera, it allows me to view the world in a completely different way, focusing on form and detail that I wouldn’t normally see. Although my subject matter varies, my images focus on the individual nature of objects and the unique qualities that each possesses. My images often examine objects in isolation providing a voice to the quiet, the ignored and the often overlooked.
(Re: this body of work) When I was a child, cereal was a luxury item. A brand name cereal was a rarity as they were consistently more expensive. Something like King Vitamin (a popular 70’s cereal) or Cap’n Crunch made for pure breakfast heaven. Looking at the cereal aisle today, it’s clear that breakfast cereal has changed. The cereal aisle has become a cornucopia of colors with marshmallows that resemble people and objects and characters from movies. It’s apparent that cereal is not just for breakfast anymore; it’s playtime. In keeping with the playtime theme, I began to construct landscapes that would utilize the natural earth tones of certain cereals. I placed enlarged photographs of actual Arizona skies (e.g. sunsets or monsoon clouds) in the background of the cereal landscapes giving the final image an odd sense of ‘reality’. Other cereals that were more vibrantly colored or made to resemble people and objects were calling out to be the center of attention.
Bio
I am based in Phoenix, Arizona. Except for a few community college classes in photography, I am self-taught. Highlights of my photography career have included:
HCP Fellowship Grant, honorary mention 2006 (Houston Center for Photography)
Artist Project Grant (Arizona Commission on the Arts)
Artists Career Development Grant (Phoenix Commission on the Arts).
Recent exhibits have included work shown at:
Bentley Projects (Phoenix, Arizona)
George Billis Gallery ( Los Angeles, California)
Houston Center for Photography (Houston, Texas),
SF Camerawork, (San Francisco, California)
Anchorage Museum of History and Art (Anchorage Alaska) .
August 22nd, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Ernie,
I was really moved once I read your commentary on the cereal sceneries. Your work is the most awesome. George Lucas would be proud!
Juliana b.
September 7th, 2006 at 8:31 am
[...] As promised, I stopped by the opening last night of the latest Hey, Hot Shot! exhibition at the Jen Bekman gallery in Manhattan. And as expected, I particularly enjoyed the photographs from Kate Bingaman. But I also want to mention the work of Phoenix-based Ernie Button. Somehow when I’d looked at his pictures online, they didn’t have the same impact that they had in person. The are pictures of “landscapes,” made of cereal. For example, the picture here is of Cheerios. [...]
September 29th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Great photography and great take on life. Hey that’s a cereal also.
AWESOME
October 12th, 2006 at 10:31 am
[...] Rob Walker of my most favoriteist NYT Sunday Magazine column, Consumed gave Ernie Button a shout-out on his blog Murketing. (Did you know he has a blog? He does and it’s good.) [...]
May 30th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
[...] Bingaman Ernie Button Kara Canal Sam Gezari Brandon Herman Matthew Kime Sara Macel Matthew Nighswander James Rajotte [...]
March 12th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
[...] work has exhibited in galleries mostly in California and Arizona, and was the Hey, Hot Shot Summer Edition Winner in 2006 at the Jen Bekman Gallery. His work can also be seen at [...]