Project Descriptions (artist statements)

 

Intros

Each project is a set of images from a geographical region or geographic topic. An example would be "Intros - Rural Midwest. In these projects I am interested in the nature of filmmaking as single images shown in rapid sequence. When I watch a film I find it interesting that some directors dwell on a single unchaging scene at least a few times. I feel this technique in film borrows from the still photograph idea, that is to plant a visual metaphor that is more abstract then the movie's narratibe sequence conveys. In this sudden static moment a temporarily altered perception may exist.

Sometimes I find watching a video on TV is more interesting when I pause the video and click it one frame at a time using the slow motion control. Someplace in the sequence is a frame that for me is even more interesting and moving then the video itself is.

That led to my asking if still photography extends time and imagination in the opposite way that film does. The still photo uses a slice of time to imply many potential things including entire narratives in the mind of an imaginative viewer. Actually I am guessing we all do that but at a subliminal level.

Rural Midwest

This project has been to look for Midwest rural scenes that fit the Intros concept. By look I mean take a map, follow roads and see what they lead to. I photographed certain scenes that seemed to have a sense of mystery. I liike that these places hava a remoteness and provoke our curiosity to know more about them. This sequence of images uses straight image making and I also have chosen a contrast range to give the images a cinematic feel. I could change my mind but I think making this group of images is finished.

Western Spaces

This image set is concerned with the basic concept of Intros but utilizes scenes from Western United States. The project uses some non-normal photo techniques that may be recognized as such though sometimes I like to obscure the liberties I took. The scenes and situations in these vast spaces seem to assume a feeling of stalled out time. I wanted to focus on that quality and play on it visually in the computer for a mixed bag of effects related to time and how blending more than one image effects us. I don't believe people's memories are so explicit as to record their experiences in an instant composition the way a camera can. I do think our memories are closer to short snippets of video or to blends of memorized images. I am more interested in using blends of images to construct a single image work that could be accepted as a single coherent image. This is the opposite direction from other conceptual projects I am doing where the construction is obvious. This project is a work in progress as of early 2010.