GALLERY 8
POINT LOBOS, Carmel, CA , late 1960's
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BYRON HOT SPRINGS, Stockton, CA , late 1960's
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WHITE SANDS, NM , 1970's
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THESE THREE GROUPS ARE BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN WITH A 35mm CAMERA IN THE EARLY 1960's.
At that time they were all printed at smaller sizes, 5x7 and 8x10, on wonderful Agfa silver gelatin black and white papers while they were still available. However recently with the discontinuance of Agfa products and the advance of technologies I have digitized the negatives and now make Giclee Prints of them.
Creative Intentions.
All traditional photography begins with seeing. The camera is just the means for expression of vision. I began my photographic career using a 35mm film camera, and I still photograph this way even though I now photograph with a digital camera. It is always a process of discovery starting with "original vision" which finally culminates in an actual object.
I was most excited to visit these three places all of which I photographed several times to make the images you see here. My goal was to discover the uniqueness of each location and fashion images that would express my feeling of the energy each place had to offer.
Point Lobos, Carmel, CA
I expect that many volumes could be written about Point Lobos by the hundreds and maybe thousands of photographers, who have photographed there and discovered the magic and magnificence it has to offer.
Point Lobos State Reserve is located just below Carmel on the California coast. Many describe it as the "crown jewel" of the State Park System because of its magnificent beauty. Weather there is unpredictable so that one never knows if they will encounter fog coming in off the Pacific ocean, bright sunlight, or an ocean storm.
In the 20th century two major historical figures in photography roamed the Point Lobos seashore frequently making photographs of rocks, sandy beaches, the ocean, and other unique geological formations. These two were Edward Weston and Ansel Adams both of whom created powerful evocative images in black and white of the majestic coastline, from 1920's through the 1940's.
One of the most astounding aspects of the rocks along the Point Lobos seacoast are the tide pools where sea creatures, sand and small rocks are washed up at high tide to remain in small pools of water when the tide recedes. These tide pools was one of the first things to command my attention when I first started photographing the seashore. But continuing to look I became enraptured with the weathered and amazing organic shapes and textures of the rocks. Then finally these became energized and enhanced by the qualities of light that struck these glorious formations, particularly the light in the early morning and late afternoon which was simply magical.
Strangely when I was driving back from my first photo trip there I was certain that I had some striking images recorded to film. And when in the darkroom I made the prints from these negatives and was amazed with finding the images that had been burned into my imagination when I had been there, when I had fallen in love with this place. My pictures, some included here, are about that fascination I still feel for Point Lobos after many years.
Byron Hot Springs Resort, Stockton, CA
During the late 19th century Byron Hot Springs was a plush hot spring resort near Antioch, California. It attracted the very wealthiest of clientele from all across the US and Europe. People came to experience the health giving and soothing waters of the springs and sometimes to recover from physical ailments. Unfortunately the resort found itself susceptible to the vagaries of the economy and and it closed soon into the 20th century.
After a short and unsuccessful attempt in the 1920's to re-open the spa again closed never to be used again as a resort. But during the 1940's and 2nd World War it again became useful in an unexpected way. The US Government was looking for locations to house captured prisoners of war, both German and Japanese. Two camps were planned, one on each coast of the US. In the west Byron Hot Springs was chosen and the US Government made arrangements for acquiring this facility. Byron was considered to be a temporary detention center for the interrogation of prisoners, and during 1944 almost 1600 prisoners were housed there.
However at the end of the war the resort facility was again abandoned and allowed to deteriorate. I discovered it in the late 1960's and made these pictures at that time.
For me the fascination was the dual history, the contrast between the facility as a plush resort, and it's use to house foreign prisoners of war. But also it was the rich textural array of decaying materials that also caught my eye along with the subtleties of light.
Giclee canvas print with
black side edges.
Giclee canvas print with
black side edges.
White Sands, NM
It was about ten years after photographing Point Lobos that I visited White Sands National Monument in the Tularosa basin near Las Cruces, New Mexico. At the time I was a graduate student in photography at the University of New Mexico and wanted to take a spring trip. Many times I had heard about White Sands and it sounded to me to have characteristics similar to the beaches along the California coastline. It also sounded similar to Point Lobos in terms of visual elements, specifically the magnificent sand dunes.
White Sands was created as a National Monument in the 1920's and is considered one of the world's great wonders. It is a huge area with some 275 square miles of gypsum sand fields, constantly shifting as strong southwest desert winds move the fine particles of sand. Only a few species of plants are able to survive burial by moving dunes. What you see today is not what you will see tomorrow.
Upon arriving at White Sands I was immediately awestruck by the beauty of what I saw. The dunes are extraordinary sculptural and textural surfaces reflecting the movement of the winds. When I ventured out on the sand I was expecting to sink in like at the seashore but was surprised to find the surface quite firm. My footprints were scarcely noticeable.
But then late afternoon came and suddenly the light became lower in the sky, soft, with strong value shifts between light and shadows. Suddenly I was presented with incredible patterns available to me which were not apparent during the middle of the day. It was this that I photographed to make the images shown here on this page.
My photographs are about the beauty of this place, the amazing sculptural and textural volumes, but even more so about the light which defines these extraordinary dunes. These images also present a purity of form that derived from this experience. And finally there is the emotion of the movements and textures that make these most special to me.
| Stan Bowman |
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