Audio tour "Wasteland: Charcoal in Haiti" by Jonathan Auch, February 13-April 30, 2016

Self-taught photographer Jonathan Auch (born 1984) studied painting, design, and illustration in college before taking a break, disillusioned and tuition-poor. He headed to Europe with an old Nikon camera, newly bought. A Robert Capa retrospective in Berlin ignited his creative imagination. He returned to New York City, began to research photographers who made a difference, and hounded war photographer James Nachtwey until he got hired as his exhibition and publications printer and assistant. Auch also worked for Bruce Gilden, famous for his candid close-ups of people on the street.

As a freelance photographer, Auch does photo and video reportage on a variety of political and cultural issues, from Occupy Wall Street to Hurricane Sandy. He seeks iconic moments revealing alienation, isolation, loneliness, or discrimination. He often uses inexpensive point-and-shoot cameras, and, as seen in this gallery, experiments with noticeable grain, stark contrast, and blurriness, finding Capa’s and Daidō Moriyama’s unsharp photos evocative and compelling. One of his earliest photographic series was to document Haiti's charcoal industry and resulting deforestation, a series exhibited at the Meadows Museum in spring 2016.

To view more of his work, visit www.jonathanauch.com.