Long known for his evocative portraits of rural life, capturing the people, the animals and the land, award-winning photographer R.J. Kern used his time as a Lakewood Artist in Residence to take a bold creative leap. Departing from his signature style, Kern embraced the unknown, experimenting with chemistry, philosophy and light to create something entirely new.
You’re Invited
Come experience the luminous results in Ethereal Echoes: A Journey of Light on display at Lakewood’s Welcome Center from July 15 through September 1.
You can also join us for an opening reception and artist talk on Tuesday, July 22, from 6:30 – 8 PM, where R.J. Kern will share the inspiration behind his work. This free gathering at our Welcome Center is open to all.
A Stunning Art Show
Crafted just steps from the graves of his ancestors, each image in Ethereal Echoes reflects the rhythms of life, death and renewal. Through organic forms shaped by light and alchemy, the series invites viewers to pause and consider the beauty that lies in transformation.
Kern describes the project as a transformation of his creative practice. “When I create, I am not taking a photograph, I am asking a question with my hands.” Explaining his process further, he adds, “It’s a tactile inquiry where my fingers converse with materials. In the darkroom, I find sanctuary, a realm where light, chemistry and silver gelatin paper conspire under my touch.”
What emerges is not a representation of reality, but an echo of it—ethereal landscapes shaped by the alchemy of accident and intention. Kern fuses ancient spiritual philosophy with experimental photographic chemistry to create hauntingly beautiful works of art. Drawing on Buddhist teachings of impermanence and rebirth, he uses Chromoskedasic techniques that alter expired silver gelatin prints to produce shimmering, mirror-like surfaces reminiscent of 19th-century daguerreotypes.
Lakewood’s landscape had a profound influence on his work. “My residency,” Kern writes, “deepened a dialogue. At Lakewood, hills, blooms, ivy and pollen grounded abstraction in ecology. Fountain water and cemetery light seeped into my process.”
Recycling as Art
Even the frames tell a story. Kern recycled pine decking from Lakewood. “I used wood that once bore the weight of caskets, flowers and grieving families. Making it so the frames are not passive borders, but narrative vessels.”
Kern built each frame from this reclaimed wood, transforming it into an active participant in the artwork. “The frames weathered grain,” he writes, “etched with decades of use, echoes the chemigrams’ themes of memory and decay, merging image and object into a single conversation.”
Kern’s work also nods to photographic history. The chemigram process, first developed in 1956 by Belgian artist Pierre Cordier, creates images without a camera, applying chemicals directly to light-sensitive paper to produce unique and unpredictable forms.
About the Artist in Residence Program
This exhibition is part of Lakewood’s inaugural Artist in Residence program, sponsored by the Lakewood Heritage Foundation. Through this unique initiative, local artists are invited to explore the cemetery’s sacred grounds and create original work inspired by their experiences. We look forward to sharing their creative work with our families, visitors and community.
Discover more about R.J. Kern’s reception and gallery show, and all the upcoming Artist in Residence events.
About the Heritage Foundation
The Lakewood Heritage Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization created to sustain Lakewood, a local treasure, by supporting educational programming and the preservation and restoration of Lakewood’s landscape, art, architecture and public spaces—for the benefit of all.
