Royal Thistles Going to Seed #5, Digital Photography, 11x8 in. 2019
Jim Ross

Jim Ross jumped into creative pursuits in 2015 after a rewarding career in public health research. With a graduate degree from Howard University, in seven years he's published nonfiction, fiction, poetry, photography, and hybrid work in over 175 journals and anthologies on five continents. Photo publications include Bombay Gin, Burningword, Camas, Columbia Journal, FERAL, Friends Journal, Manchester Review, Stoneboat, Stonecoast, and Typehouse. Photo essays include Barren [https://barrenmagazine.com/picture-perfect/], DASH, Kestrel [https://www.fairmontstate.edu/kestrel/sites/default/files/issues/contributions/Jim%20Ross%201.pdf], Ilanot Review, Litro [https://www.litrony.com/2020/04/honoring-small-towns-apple-butter-festival/], New World Writing [https://newworldwriting.net/jim-ross-escaping-into-pilgrimage/], Sweet [https://sweetlit.org/jim-ross-issue-14-1/], and Wordpeace, with Typehouse and Inklette forthcoming. Jim and his wife—parents of two health professionals and grandparents of five little ones—split their time between city and mountains.
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Artist Statement:

With camera in hand almost wherever I go, I try to capture moments of transition, recognizing that often such transitions occur in stillness. In the back of my mind, though, I’m always working on several clusters that might become photo essays, and remain vigilant for opportunities to add to these clusters. With nature, the cycles that occur with the seasons offer rich opportunities to capture images of the life cycle, as in this photo of a magnificent royal thistle going to seed.