PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS
Interaction
Monuments and markers dot lands of the American West and illustrate nostalgia for the past. Ghost towns, mines and plowed earth indicate human ingenuity over marginal spaces. Abandoned motels and struggling edifices reveal a mosaic of public and private ownership and control.
Negotiation
The idea of simulacra is a persistent theme in the study of the human construct. And therefore, prevalent in my study of human wildland interface. At what point is a landscape natural or human. Looking back across the history of exploration photography there was little that had been studied whereas these sites today must balance nature, capital and social will.
“desert persona” examines Dinosaur, Colorado and its tenacity as an evolving pit stop along a well-traveled corridor. Formerly, Artesia, Colorado, now known as Dinosaur evolved with the tourism industry given its proximity to the national monument. The selected images represent a gridded city ideal peppered with inhabitant individuality that implores eccentricity. Formal aesthetics document “whoever messed up this fence you have no conscience!” illustrates the locale’s self-expressive residents.
Tension
The expansive landscapes of the American West satiate those with a biophilic need to reconnect with nature. Yet, the human-wildland interface is a land of considerable conflict. Development has reconfigured once notable gateways and vistas, or neighbor major extractive industry. Though small islands of wilderness preserve the simulation of a land before colonial conquest it comes with costly-management.
“Ranchurbia” was once an exclusive resort town phenomenon, the now widespread conversion of ranchland into smaller five-acre parcels has patterned a new landscape of rurality typified by a wave of inhabitants demanding higher urban-quality services. Images create a narrative that visualizes this trend now observable across the American West. Spring Creek (eastern Nevada) exemplifies the case of unregulated sprawl now framing a once pastoral portal to Elko County’s scenic Ruby Mountains. Documented through striking, visually complex landscape photographs this narrative reveals a historic shift in land use at the Lamoille Canyon site; a place blessed and cursed by aridity.
Fluctuation
Fluctuation is an ongoing body of 360-degree panoramic photography. In the spirit of the commons the backyard is prevalent in my study of the landscapes of the West. This is not the possessive backyard fenced to exclude but a collective landscape that we all should have a vested interest in preserving. This extends to understanding and protecting the family ranches that make up the mythical west.
Each panoramic photograph is made up of eight to fifteen single images. The images are placed together in Photoshop manually. The seams between each image are left to emphasize the movement of the camera. Unlike many panoramic photographs where the seams are excluded and one precise image is made, these panoramic photographs explore the imperfections of vision to document the human constructed landscape. The horizons are lined up at the seam, creating a thread between each image of the panoramic photograph. The camera lens distorts the image further exploring the thesis of Bill McKibbens in his book the “End of Nature” or the “Simulacra” of the West presented by Jean Baudrillard.