civilized ku # 49 ~ civilized to within an inch of its life
Monday, August 6, 2007 at 08:38AM 
Plastic fantastic • click to embiggenThe wife says that, at one time, the Jersey shore, Stone Harbor edition, had a sort of nativistic summer colony look and feel. I believe her because, scattered here and there, are very tiny hints of that era - a few small cottage-type summer places that remain amongst the upper-middle class subdivision dreck that is elbow-to-elbow clogging/gobbling up the landscape.
In any event, it was so hot and humid during the daylight hours that I took to picturing at night, wandering about like a stranger in a strange land. I'm new to the night photography game but I found that the night landscape spoke to me in a fashion not unlike that of my normal daylight picturing.
As I was processing and viewing some of my night images, I was struck by the lost history/culture of this place. By sheer coincidence, as I was taking a break, I came across this reference to the photography of Walker Evans -
...if it can be said that Evans’ work is essentially denotative, and its ambition is to name irrefutably what it shows, it must be added that, almost paradoxically, through the concentrated descriptive power of photography, his pictures also claim those other trailing meanings that lie hidden in things. By being so vividly, immediately present – and so compassionately unmasked – these objects, facades, corners of towns and rooms, and human faces not only report what they are, but also suggest the improvised, heartfelt, and difficult histories that brought them to the moment Evans photographed them.
This seems to describe much of my photography.
ps - the excerpt is from the essay, Evans and Frank: An Essay on Influence, the purpose of which is to describe the influence of Walker Evans’ American Photographs (1938) on The Americans (1959) of Robert Frank.
Reader Comments (3)
You wrote, "I'm new to the night photography game but I found that the night landscape spoke to me in a fashion not unlike that of my normal daylight picturing."
Mark, as we night photographers like to say, "Welcome to the 'dark' side."
Andy
Neat,tidy, and immaculately boring (the setting, not the photo). The landscaped flowers look a bit wilted and out-of-place... bet $10 that fence is plastic.
The "subdivision dreck...elbow-to-elbow" Mark photographed reminds me of my two plus years spent about 45 minutes west of St. Louis just off of I-70. The apartment complexes and subdivisions are expanding west into what used to be these amazing little riverside towns and farming communities of rural Missouri, some of which you can still experience...for another few years at best. The communities hit by sprawl exhibit homes/condos so neat and clean in the sameness of their shape, color, and size that your mind feels disinfected somehow.
That being said, the photo is stunning...and I hate it. It's downright painful to live that way.
I appreciate the lack of a moon and stars--any sort of natural light source in the sky--almost like the stars are imperfections that needed to be removed. The infinite white (and plastic I think) picket fence is also disturbing and clinical...no maintenance required. The power source of all that unnatural light peaking out from behind said fence is a "nice" touch also.