Summer Intensive Final Project

Don't look if you want it to be a surprise on Tuesday.








Attached are my pictures for the final. I outsourced the framing and matting. Outsource is the euphemism the instructors taught us for "have someone else, who knows what they are doing, do it ". I elected that route due to my inability to create a polished presentation framework. I wanted a classical framing look to the series but considered backlighting the skies in the road pictures. Earlier I had other pictures with lens flare that would have benefited from that type of display.

The Artist Statement must accompany this presentation. It has its own from, similar to the others. The theme of the series is Equivalents. The viewer feels something ( has a memory, emotion or reaction) while looking each picture. The photographer must also demonstrate that Equivalents are present in the series. My statement covers some of that.

Artist Statement

My favorite pastime with the camera is seeing new places at 65 mile per hour. I look at a lake and might stop if I see something extraordinary. Otherwise I am breezing by, usually as my dog has her head out the window.

Shooting something with the windows up is a waste of time. Tint, blur, bugs and dirt are all too difficult to overcome. Shooting out the driver’s window toward an approaching target is another story.

Montana has too many roads, trails and paths worth exploring. The trips I take in the driver’s seat usually have been initiated without a specific destination in mind. I wander the country side and see and feel what the area has to offer.

Early in the day the roads bend sharply and the hills are low and gentle. I am alert and eager to tackle tight curves and steep drops in the asphalt.

While I speed up to eighty the rolling terrain gives way to larger foothills and straight runs which allow for exhilarating rides. Side roads become hundred mile jaunts that take you completely off track (if you had one in the first place.)

As it grows later in the day and I begin to grow weary, the roads keep stretching out before me, meandering up and down and left and right. Do I stop and eat or keep on driving? Is it cloudy out or will the stars cooperate tonight? Have I really been driving for ten hours and five hundred miles with only forty-eight minutes of stopping time? Did I just see something over there?

Looking back I see that the sunset is chasing me and pushing me toward a way home. Or should I make that four hour commitment to shoot the stars?

I must find a place to face northwest before the sun is down so I don’t have to scout it in the dark. Hour one includes picking the spot, setting up the equipment and waiting for the daylight to extinguish. The next three hours include trying to keep from falling asleep after such a long journey. Did my eyes just close? Did I see a flash? Is there any danger to being here?

Hopefully I stay on the road all the way home.