He studied fine arts at The Cleveland Institute of Art; graphic design at The Cooper School of Art and has had a keen interest in photography since grade school. Following his formal education, he then went on to manage an in-house ad agency, where he honed his eye for design in a career that spanned several decades. Shortly after retiring to Florida in 2011, he embarked on his current vocation as
a fine art photographer. His current focus is on displaying his work in solo, group and juried exhibitions throughout the state of Florida. Most of John’s painterly photographs are captured at the parks, preserves and beaches of Southwest Florida and processed at his home office in Venice. He has been a member and volunteer at the Venice Art Center since 2013. Artist’s Statement:
John Hintz takes nature photographs that would probably be out of place among the straightforward, hyper-articulated images in National Geographic or any venue where documentary realism is privileged. Yet his photo-inversions are as meticulously composed as anything one might find in those glossy realms; and often reveal, through their radical departure from naturalism, various shapes, associations, and even multilayered stories right out in the open (but invisible to the naked eye or any other means of conventional perception). The parks, preserves, and beaches of southwest Florida are where John harvests his painterly photographs, regularly descending upon this tropical landscape to locate “the most extraordinary and fascinating natural compositions I can find - preferably with a strong focal point, a dark background, and a good variety of color.”
Then, after returning home and downloading his catch, he selects the prime images and inverts their original colors - to their direct opposites in the color spectrum; so greens become reds, blues become oranges, yellows become purples. It’s only at that moment - when painstaking composition meets technological transformation - that John actually knows what he has created. The unusual, oversaturated colors add a fantastical element to the images, making them seem like snapshots from another dimension - an inverted world that resembles our own, yet with otherworldly deviations. For John, though, the decidedly surrealist bent of his pictures may be incidental to their most significant achievement, which is to actually reveal parts of our own world that would surely go missing without his roving, dedicated eye.
“Inverting the colors enriches subtle, intricate details, especially in dark areas where, in the original colors, the image is mostly obscured” says John. “There’s a rich interplay between this whole other layer of shadows, lines, and shapes that comes through - from stray vegetation and different textures in the landscape or some other convergence of plant life and terrain. Nature does the work, ultimately - I just apply a sort of filter that makes it visible.”
John’s interest in photography began when he was in grade school and got his first camera, a Kodak Brownie Starflash. Later, he studied fine arts and graphic design, then went on to manage an in-house ad agency, where he honed his eye for design in a career that spanned several decades. The raw beauty and wonder of nature is relentless and overwhelming, to the point sometimes where it seems mundane - something we take for granted, especially in a place like Florida with so much wildness intact. John Hintz’s art, as much as it reveals hidden bounties, also refocuses our appreciation of nature by isolating distinct, finely composed scenes so that we may once again “stop and smell the roses” (notwithstanding the fact that his roses are green and attached to purple bushes). Solo Exhibitions:
2024 March 24th, IslandWalk Community "ArtWalk", Venice, FL
2023 October 1st - 29th, Local Artist Program, Breakwater Home Fashions, Wellen Park, FL
2021 May 28th – June 24th, Venice Art Center, Venice, FL
Group Exhibitions:
2024 November 17th, IslandWalk Fall Arts & Crafts Show, Venice, FL
2019 Venice Regional Bayfront Health, Venice, FL
2016 Englewood Camera Club Expo, Englewood Art Center, Englewood, FL
Selected Juried Exhibitions:
2023 “H2O”, Venice Art Center, Venice, FL
2022 “Near & Far Show”, Venice Art Center, Venice, FL - Honorable Mention
2021 “Get Inspired by Wet and Wild” Puddles + Ocean + Aquatic Life, North Port Art Center, North Port, FL
2021 Florida Artists Group 71st Anniversary Exhibition, Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin, FL
2020 Florida Artists Group 70th Anniversary Exhibition, Foosaner Art Museum, Melbourne, FL
2020 “Strides of March”, The Studio@620, Saint Petersburg, FL
2019 Florida Artists Group 69th Anniversary Exhibition, Ringling College of Art & Design, Sarasota, FL
2019 Florida Artists Group in Naples, Naples Art Association, Naples, FL
2019 Spring Members Show, Venice Art Center, Venice, FL - Honorable Mention
2018 INTERMIX, Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, FL
2018 Spring Members Show, Venice Art Center, Venice, FL - Nell Rude Award for Photography
2015 Third Triannual Competition, Florida Camera Club Council (Online) - Yellow Ribbon
2014 Spring Members Show, Venice Art Center, Venice, FL
Corporate, Permanent and Public Collections:
2021 Sarasota Memorial Hospital - Venice, Venice, FL
Commissioned Works:
2023 Series of Posters, "The Breakwater Collection", Wellen Park, FL
2021 Triptych, "Blue Sea Grape 3", Venice, FL
Articles:
Wellen Park Journal, “Wellen Park resident John Hintz: a photographer who turns colors inside out” –
November-December 2022, pp. 14-15, Venice, FL
Venice Style, “The Art of Healing” - January 2022, pp. 48-53 & 64, Venice, FL
Artsy Shark, “Featured Artist” - April 2019, www.bit.ly/2WEUAMK
Artsy Shark, “The Art of Color” - October 2014, p. 7, www.artsyshark.com
Venice Gulf Coast Living, “About Our Cover” - January 2014, Cover, pp. 4-5, Venice, FL
Education:
Graphic Design, 1970-1972, The Cooper School of Art, Cleveland, OH
Fine and Studio Arts, 1967-1969, The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
Memberships:
North Port Art Center, North Port, FL – 2021 to 2022
Florida Artists Group (FLAG), Area III - 2018 to 2021
Englewood Camera Club, Englewood, FL - 2014 to 2016
Venice Art Center, Venice, FL - 2013 to 2024
Gallery Affiliations:
Number 33 Gallery of Arts, Venice, FL – 2023
Collectors Gallery & Framery, Venice, FL – 2021 - 2023
Art Escape Gallery, Venice, FL – 2021
