This is an abstract of my thesis proposal:
I am interested in exploring ideas of the decay, destruction and renewal of both manmade structures and the natural world. I plan on using black and white digital capture for this project and I intend to focus on the rural areas surrounding my home focusing on remnants of old farms as well as new construction that cuts through the landscape. I am also interested in the idea of the found place, playing off the idea of the found object in art history. Most important to me is the process and experience of finding these scenes and then recording them. I find my locations and impose compositional frames upon them. I try to convey the sort of beauty that I personally feel comes from these disparate elements. I want to call attention to the fragility and transitory nature of things that are generally seen to be strong and permanent. In this way the photograph is not merely recording the scene but imposing my emotions upon it and imbuing it with something more than exists there in reality
I am influenced by Joel Sternfeld's series "Walking the Highline" as well as Frank Gohlke's writings in his book "Thoughts on Landscape". I love Ansel Adams' black and white landscapes and for this project I was very inspired by his 1967 photographs of Los Angeles freeways. I am inspired very much by Frank Gohlke's 1972-74 series "Grain Elevators" as well as his 2002 series "42.30 North". Robert Adams' photographs were the first of the of the New Topograpics that I ever saw and have had a big impact on how I think about landscape photography. I am also a fan of Adam's numerous writings particularly his views on beauty in photography. I have been greatly inspired by Robert Smithson's writings about his earthwork " The Spiral Jetty", he writes about his process and emotions of searching for and finding his site. I also agree very much with Richard Avedon’s thoughts on truthfulness and accuracy in photography and I think that Vince Aletti puts it quite nicely: “If absolute truth were the only thing photography had to offer, it would have disappeared a century ago.”.
