Cistern, Liberty Community Baptist Chruch, Lee County, Texas October 1976Like so many others who picked up a view camera back in the mid-70's, the classic west coast styles of Ansel Adams, Edward and Brett Weston, Henry Gilpin, and many more heavily influenced me. But unlike most, I was lucky enough to be friends with the likes of Russell Lee, and later Oliver Gagliani -- I was an assistant to Ollie for seven summers starting in 1980. Walker Evans was a major influence. And just as much good influence came from my photo-paisans in those formative years. Like the old car dealership in Waelder, Texas I posted a week ago, Larry, Richard, and I were out early on a Saturday morning driving around the back roads of Lee County. I have always thrilled at finding those modern artifacts of our culture that express a simplicity of life. It doesn't get better than this community drinking bottle hanging on a nail on the side of cistern out front of an old country church. I've always called these images "social landscapes." This image was my very first successful expanded development negative of a white surface.
No comments:
Post a Comment