Jason Roehner spent his childhood camping and shoveling endless amounts of snow on the East Coast until he and his family moved to Arizona in 1998. His early fascination with the seemingly exponential growth of Phoenix led him to explore the relationship of the desert to its inhabitants. Jason graduated from The Herberger Institute for Design and The Arts at Arizona State University in 2008 and continues to contribute work to Phoenix Transect The most important aspects of photographing along the Salt, Gila, and Verde Rivers that traverse the Valley are experiencing different areas of change throughout Phoenix, and spending time in a territory that lives under a microscope as we bring the future into focus. As rivers and trains have helped cultivate areas during exploration and settlement in the past, I’m also interested in what growth may to come to areas along the path of the light rail, and have been exploring and visualizing this change through the practice of rephotography.

REPHOTOGRAPHS – LIGHT RAIL

April 22, 2012December 28, 2017 Jason Roehner

Months before the Valley Metro Light Rail opened for travel in December 2008, Ryan Heckel methodically photographed every undeveloped lot along its path with an interest in understanding the change and impact of its construction. Now, with over a million passengers per month in 2010, and planned expansion over the next two decades, we can […]

THERMAL CITY

April 29, 2011December 29, 2017 Jason Roehner

…it is certain that a beam of heat is the essence of the matter. Heat, and invisible, instead of visible, light. Whatever is combustible flashes into flame at its touch, lead runs like water, it softens iron, cracks and melts glass, and when it falls upon water…explodes into steam. —H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds, […]

REPHOTOGRAPHS – URBAN NEIGHBORHOOD

April 22, 2011December 28, 2017 Jason Roehner

In tracing a visual urban history of dynamic central city neighborhoods a common misconception is made: “then and now”, “now and then”. Discontinuity and loss seem the primary effect as space and time are ripped asunder by this binary, linear view. Upon a second, and maybe third viewing, the tension between “past” and “present” reveal […]