How do we perceive the world? Photographs allow us to see places we are not physically visiting at a given moment. they illicit imagination, memory, and desire. But how much of the reality are we seeing and how much of statement of the artist? To the casual observer, a documentary image may be mistaken for reality, while a heavily processed image can be dismissed as fanciful. In my work I've become more and more fascinated with how much the act of making a photographic image can evolve beyond the mood and tone of the actual place it was taken.
In late july
When the forest brims a thousand shades of green
And the river flows lazy to the sea
This tritone image was taken on the Alsea River in Orgeon, the summer of 07. When I took it I imagined nothing like this. I was a bright sunny day and the scene was bursting with every shade of green imaginable. Insect hum and the lazy flow of water made me want to set the tripod down and have a picnic. Now, two years later I revisit the negative and have created something suggested more by the possibility of the tonal range of the negative than my memory of the day. To see a more 'true to life' interpretation, go here. I'm not making any value judgement on either version, both have vibrance and vitality to me