Happy new year!
I woke up at around 9:30 a.m. and made the same breakfast I always do. Bacon, eggs, a bagel with an excessive amount of cream cheese, coffee, and an apple. I went to bed happy last night, knowing how much 2018 has brought me, through the good and the bad. With an optimistic outlook into 2019, I bundled up in bed and bid my final “happy new years” to a few more friends before finally falling asleep.
Since the end of finals week in mid-December, I’ve been toying with this idea, trying to figure out the best way to execute it. An idea that I can very well see as my second photo book.
The big, over-arching question I’m trying to answer with my new project is this:
“How can I represent TIME with LANDSCAPE photography?”
Now, I don’t necessarily mean traditional landscape. Though I don’t label myself as any specific genre or style of photography, I do technically fit into the armada of landscape photographers. Unlike in my national park and state park photography where I focus on the beauty of the Earth, I utilize traditional as well as urban (or “new topographical,” or “vernacular”) landscape within by personal work. This method came about in the days of working on Arbor, Neighbor, and especially during the process of making Moth.
I want to continue this visual style of using landscape as a stage for the message of this project. I’ve been constantly looking at the work shown in Subjectively Objective, Aint-Bad, and the work of Alec Soth, especially his acclaimed book Sleeping by the Mississippi.
I plan on talking with my first photography professor, Jason Reblando, for guidance on making this project a reality, as well as getting to know 4x5 film photography better. His book New Deal Utopias was one of the first photo books I was introduced to, and the fact that one of my favorite photography books was made by my first photography professor is really special.
As I draw my visual and conceptual inspiration from these sources, I need to get myself out there and begin making photographs as often as I can. Exhaust the obvious answers to this question, and work off of those obvious answers to bring out more subtle answers to this question.
Since this concept is in its early stages, I only have the “big question.” As it is with many photography projects like this, the more personal, specific, and “artful” question comes out through working over time.
I don’t know how long this project will take. I plan on using many formats of photography in this project, including digital, 35mm film, 120 film, and 4x5 film. I think each format needs to fit each scene properly. One scene may call for 120 square-format, while another might call for digital, and another might call for 4x5. This will be determined both by the scene, but also by the content of the scene.
If my question is “how do I represent time in landscape photography,” time can be represented by the medium of photography I use. Photography itself is a timeless, and time-full medium. An oxymoron of art. The “time-stopping” medium that lasts forever. I believe this idea can be utilized within this project.
I can see this project being a testament to contemporary photography, heavily influenced by photography’s history and the ever-changing culture of photographic art.
While I work on this project for the coming months, and possibly years, I hope you all have a wonderful beginning to 2019 full of joy and art.