HISTORY AS AN ARTIST, page 5

New Photography but with differences. 2009 on.

What is so interesting for artists is that they often seem to come back to processes and imagery that they may have started many years earlier, but the return is marked by a new depth of understanding based upon all the intervening years of experience and exploration of new processes, materials and visions. This has been the case for me in the last few years where I have again picked up and photographed with a camera, only this time with a high end digital camera rather than a 35mm film camera. Also I have returned to making more traditional photographs of landscapes only this time in color and with a wide angle lens and processed and enhanced in Adobe Photoshop. New materials (digital cameras and software) are enabling me to achieve new kinds of presentation that were not available to me when I first started as a photographer in the late 1950's, but in addition I have discovered a new vision for presenting some of my images which I am calling "grand landscapes" because for me they encompass the grandeur of natural landscape.

I started my early career in art as a photographer in the late 1950's using a 35mm film camera and black and white film to create some of my first serious photography. Perhaps my first significant images were taken at Point Lobos along the California seacoast in the Carmel Bay area just below Monterey. Although my main interest there were the fantastic rock formations and textures some images were taken to show the wider seacoast where water meets the rocks.

However my first experience more focused on the wider landscape was at White Sands National Monument in White Sands New Mexico. There I pointed my camera to get a broader view of the landscape to show the shape and texture of the sand dunes, photographed in the late afternoon when the light and shadows were most pronounced and dramatic.

Then in 2009, for the first time in quite a few years, I picked up a camera and went outdoors to take photographs. My first actual set of images, taken with a newly acquired medium wide angle lens and a Pentax DSLR came about while taking a fall vacation trip to Cape Cod at the National Seashore. It was simply a revelation for me and I began to see photographic possibilities that I had not seen before. Moreover it also included color and light and although both of these were not new to me I began to see how I could record and express these in a new way that was more extraordinary. It seemed as if I was seeing wide landscape scenes for the first time and knew intuitively how to put them together in a photographic image.

One source for my inspiration regarding the grand landscape has always been the paintings of the Hudson River School of artists such as Thomas Cole, Frederick Church, and John Kenett. There is on one hand a broad picturing of landscape from the foreground to background with sharp detail in all areas. There is also a quiet pastoral feeling combined with a special sense of atmosphere and light. These painters were after celebrating the beauty and special quality of the American landscape. In the back of my mind I carry the pictures of these images, the way in which these artists pictured the landscape, the way they bring in the viewer and involve them in the feeling of space and atmosphere.

Now one might say that Cape Cod is very special and it would be hard to not take amazing pictures there. Yes, on one hand it is unique but at the same time the images taken there can be just about anything and the real difference is the person conceiving of and taking the images. It is a matter of visualization. When I first started taking these pictures I did have the Hudson River School images in mind but I also was looking at the scenes with a new appreciation of landscape and feelings about how I wanted to picture it, not just like those painters but in my own special style and perception. Also in my mind was all the landscapes I had photographed over the years, how I had organized light and space and what atmosphere I had sought after.

After creating the Cape Cod images I had a clear vision of what I wanted for other landscape photographs. Since I live in upstate New York I turned my attention to local scenes and discovered to my surprise that there were all sorts of image possibilities that had never seen before to catch my attention. There is a special quality about farmland areas in the northeast US and I found I suddenly had new eyes to view what is around me. I have lived in the Ithaca area of upstate New York for over 30 years and suddenly I could see landscape image possibilities that I intuitively knew would work. This has resulted in an expanding series of farmland scenes that represent my current photography vision. I also discovered that I can photograph most anywhere at just about any time of the year. Consequently my collection of images has grown significantly over the past two years.

My next exploration will include traveling to other prominent scenic locations like Cape Cod but I imagine that it will also include scenes from other locations along the way. What is most exciting is finding new scenes to photograph that appear with surprise.