artist inquiry

L.A. Watson took a different approach on showing the death of animals in his Roadside Memorial Project. By using cutouts of the animals that you may find along the side of the road, Watson has taken out the gory details that others included in their series’. Watson simply shows a representation of what the animal would look like if it were there. The light trails from the passing cars show the movement of the cars that may have hit the animal had it been on the road. With the lights of the cars, but not the actual cars in the photos, there is a lot to be interpreted here that is not actually visible. You have to imagine the car there, as well as the actual animal, that’s what makes this unique. I believe that this is a beautiful project with a wonderful concept; memorializing the animals that are commonly killed by cars without showing either of those actual objects. 

Crystal McBrayer’s series Birds, Bones, & Other Once-living Things is full of just that. Photos of dead animals happen to be some of my favorites, which may seem weird, but in this case it is because McBrayer has found a way to really show the beauty in these creatures who have lost their lives. In the photo above, this small bird has seen its last day, but as it lays in the snow, it seems perfectly preserved and out of harms way. It seems to be at peace. In the photo that starts off the series on the original post, there is another dead bird shown being held by a very gentle set of hands. There is so much beauty and well thought out compositions in this series, which brings me to what I believe the concept to be; showing that not all death is ugly. Unlike Steve Baker’s series Roadside, McBrayer focuses on not showing the blood and guts that come with these animals deaths. She does it in a much cleaner and composed way. 

Yola Monakhov Stockton’s series The Nature of Imitation is full of natural subjects with man made objects mixed in. The backgrounds of some of the photos are obviously paper, and you can tell by the ripples and the shown edges. These man made objects are what can be considered the imitation in these photos. They are imitating the nature around the objects without really relating to them at all. The above photo shows the obvious involvement of humans and the paper blocking most of what is behind it. We can see the hand of the person holding the bird in place, which makes these images seem less natural. I believe that the concept here is to show that sometimes things are staged, and sometimes they may look natural, but other times there is an obvious difference between what is natural and what is an imitation. 

Jeanine Michna-bales’ Underground Railroad Series shows exactly what the title suggests. It is a series of photos taken of different safe points and areas that were part of the Underground Railroad. All of the photos are taken in the dark, or close to dark, which can be related to the fact that that was usually the only time that the people using the Underground Railroad’s systems could travel. The quotes beneath each photo help to give even more meaning to the photos. Each one gives details into what was going on at the time and what some of the people were going through on their journeys to freedom. I believe that the concept is to give us a little insight as to what these people were dealing with and how difficult it may have been for them to travel. This series is here to help show us the places that were safe, and the places that were not.

In Thomas Jackson’s project Emergent Behavior he shows objects in situations that are not natural. The cheese puffs above seem to be exploding out of the tree, or in another one of his pieces, there is a bundle of glow sticks that are floating in the air. His pieces are odd, but interesting. These images make me wonder how he went about setting these scenes up. How is everything suspended in the air so perfectly? Was there editing done to take away pieces that may have been holding things up? How long did it take him to set each scene up? There are so many questions to be asked, and maybe that is the point. Maybe Thomas Jackson wanted people to question his work and wonder how he did it. 

Out of the entire collection of photos, Nate Mathews’ piece Ivy Tree stood out the most to me. This amazing idea of capturing the ivy on a wall because it makes the shape of a tree intrigues me. Not everyone would catch this as they pass by, but Mathews did. The beautiful contrast between the color of the brick wall and the color of the ivy really helps the shape of the tree stand out. I also love the inclusion of the gaps of space on the sides. On the right side of the photo, we see some of what is beyond the wall, while on the left side, we see another wall. I think it’s nice to see the ends of the wall that the ivy is on in order to see just how big this ivy tree might be. I also like that Mathews’ titled the piece what he did because it helps us to see what HE sees in the land, while others may see something else, or see nothing at all. Once again the concept of everyone seeing the landscape differently continues. 

Matthew Stevenson’s above piece titled Heineken stands out for a few different reasons. The main thing that caught my attention was the the Heineken bottle stands out greatly against the dull background. The photo is full of the same color, just in different tones. The dull background helps to put emphasis on the little glass bottle. This photo also makes me wonder if Stevenson found the bottle like that or if it was staged. If it was found that way, I feel like this photo could also have a purpose in showing the importance of not littering. There is this bottle out in the middle of nowhere that should not be there, and Stevenson captures that thought quite well, even if it was not meant to have that meaning. Once again, just as with Jennifer Raye’s piece, I believe that the concept continues to be the thought of looking at landscapes differently. Some people may see these images very differently than others. 

In Jennifer Raye’s above piece titled Installation, Raye shows a different way to look at the land. While the image is full of the color green, there are still some off tones from things like the dead grass and the white flowers that even it out so it is no overwhelmingly green. This image caught my eye mainly because of the very middle. The grass looks to be braided. I like the idea of minor alterations in order to make something so simple turn into something more interesting. Before it was just grass, and now it is still just grass but there is something different to make it intriguing. While a lot of the other artists featured in the Looking at the Land collection focused on broader subjects such as buildings and larger areas of landscape, Raye chose to photograph a smaller area, and I think that makes her piece a little more unique. I love the set up of the photo, and I think that the concept through the entire series is to have people look at landscapes differently than they normally would, and Jennifer Raye certainly accomplished that here. 

All in all, the concept of everyone seeing things differently is clear in this collection. 

The overall concept of the series seems to be to capture the beauty and harm of these fires and the disaster that they have caused. 

The above photo is one of a cat in an extremely relaxed state; stretched out as far is he/she can stretch. It’s almost as if it doesn’t have a care in the world that this person is taking a picture of it, it’s just fully relaxed. 

While the concept may be odd, and a little gory, I think it is to help people understand that there is beauty even in death. These animals may have died, but Witham has picked them up and brightened their deaths up a bit.