FYI ~ make them an offer they can't refuse

Lake Lila sinset • click to embiggenI have thought about this for a bit and have now decided to extend an offer - If any of you are interested in a get-together, I am willing to provide all that is needed (with a little help for food expenses) for a 3-4 day canoe trip into the Adirondack wilderness. I have all the gear for up to 10-12 of you. All you have to do is get here.

I made this offer to a group before but, for a variety of reasons, it never quite got organized.

If you are interested, please respond within the next 10 days so that there is ample time to agree on a time to do this - this was the main obstacle the last time around.

If you haven't been to the Adirondacks, why not come for a visit and see how a sustainable economy in the largest wilderness in the eastern U.S. works? Hell, you might even want to bring a camera and take few pictures.

Update on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 04:00PM by gravitas et nugalis

For those who have inquired so far, August is the best summer month and late August is better yet. The bugs are all but gone. My absolute favorite time is the first 2 weeks after Labor Day. Warm days, cool nights (nice for campfires), crisp mornings and the water is usually plenty warm for swimming. And, just like the bugs, most tourists are gone as well.

FYI, the reason for the 10-12 person limit is that wilderness campsites are limited to a max of 8 persons but frankly, at most wilderness sites 8 persons would be stacked like firewood. So, if we get 10-12 volunteers, I can split the tents up between 2 sites - for sleeping only. We can still eat and hangout together at the 'kitchen' site.

Hope to hear from more of you soon.

BTW, you can respond on this journal entry or use the 'email me' link on the sidebar to respond

crafted ku # 5 - 2 for 1

Drive thru - phone orders only • click to embiggenOne of the primary reasons for which I started blogging was to have a conversation about photography. The emphasis has been on 'landscape' and, over the 6 months since The Landscapist has been around, the notion of 'landscape' has evolved, in my mind, to a somewhat broader meaning than the 'traditional' idea of landscape photography.

Much of this transition has come about because of my 'thinking out-loud' here on The Landscapist and your reactions and responses to it. To those of you who have contributed to that process, pro and con - thanks very much. Your feedback and opinions have been much appreciated.

That said, where all this has lead to for me is this - I now have a much refined focus and sense of purpose for my photography. To wit:

For much of my adult life I have been drawn to the Adirondacks simply because of its natural beauty and my first photographic impulse after moving here was to picture that beauty. I have gone about doing that in a very personal way - picturing, in my own pecular photographic way, what I thought and felt was important and meaningful. In that sense I feel that I have accomplished much of what I set out to do - discover more about myself and my relationship to and with the natural world. Along the way I also think that I have created pictures which meet Robert Adams' three verities of landscape pictures - geography, autobiography, and metaphor.

But, time marches on and now I think that photography ain't worth the effort if it's all just about me. For sure, I have been trying (and succeeding) to 'communicate' with others on my path to personal discovery, however, I have had a feeling that something important has been 'missing' in my landscape photography.

That is why this recently struck a chord - Peter Galassi, the chief curator of photography at MOMA, said about the work of Barry Frydlender: the '...open descriptiveness of [his] style, which has its core the notion that facts are symbols, full of socially interpretive information ...', and, his pictures demonstrate a "... willingness to address a big question outside of [him]self."

I want to include in my pictures a big question outside of myself. That question for me is humankind's relationship to the land, aka, 'nature' because, IMO, there is probably no bigger question for our times.

I have also realized that by picturing as I go about my daily life in a park - which happens to be not only the largest wilderness east of the Mississippi but also the largest state park in the lower 48 (bigger than Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Everglades and Yosemite Nat'l parks combined) - I am creating a diary about one of the planet's few examples of a functioning, not theoretical, sustainable economy.

The notion of a sustainable economy flies in the face of our current economic model, as practiced by both producers and consumers, which emphasises desire over need and depletion over conservation. If we don't want things to change for the worse, then things must change.

I want to be part of a change for the better and as David Hockney has opined; 'If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he's really needed.'

So, there you have it. I am not changing the name of my blog to My Life in a Park but that is where my picturing is headed. I do think, however, that that will be the title of my book.

FYI a good read about Robert Adams

urban ku # 63 ~ Wadhams, NY

Boquet River ~ Wahdams, NY • click to embiggenBefore we moved to the Adirondacks, I had spent all of my time in the Adirondacks on the water (2,500 lakes and ponds, 20,000 miles of waterways) and in the forest and mountains. All together that accounts for about 95 percent of the Adk Park.

One area which comprises a large part of the rest of the park, and one to which I had never ventured (before moving to the Adirondacks), is the Champlain Valley region. In fact, the entire eastern border of the park is the Lake Champlain shoreline. This region is rolling fertile farmlands - lots of apple orchards and grain - dotted with tiny lakefront quaint New England-style villages and hamlets.

Wadhams is located a few miles (as the crow flies) from the Lake Champlain. It use to be a mill town. Now it's just a tiny-tiny hamlet with a fantastic coffee/bakery shop and a few homes. The old dam on the Boquet still makes electricity which is sold to the 'grid'.

urban ku # 62 ~ a church in Essex

A church in the village of Essex • click to embiggenYesterday, on Royce Howland's Sodium Vapor Night Life picture Bill Gotz wrote; 'What is the definition of grand or iconic or pretty ... I often see stuff on this site that that I regard as grand, iconic and at least beautiful if not pretty. And strong denials that it is so. Do I have a different understanding of these words. What's wrong with me? (Or you?)'

My response: It is true that on ocassion a picture of a grand (sweeping scale) and iconic (executed according to a convention or tradition) nature is published here on The Landscapist. Why not? Those who hang out here are an open-minded bunch and I know of no prohibition against it. Although, I must state that most pictures do not have conventional icons (that which is the object of great attention and devotion) as their referent.

Re: 'beautiful' - of course, as the blog subhead implies, all of the photography seen here aims at being true, not at being beautiful because, what is true is most often beautiful. I consider the 'beauty' that unites all of the pictures here to be an underlying affection for life in all of its manifestations.

At least that's how I see it.

8x10 Provia ~ Doyle Thomas

click any photo to embiggen

While working in the pristine landscape the intent of these images is to remove the normal "rules of composition" and leave it to the viewer to find their own way around (hence the round aspect ratio (no pun intended).

Doyle also wrote; "I hope you can see your way to posting these as I would very much enjoy to read what more open minded people might think about them."

All right people, you read what Doyle called you. Now get on with it and tell him what you think.

I think that by ignoring 'the rules of cropping' he has altered considerably the way I perceive and relate to these pictures.

Sodium Vapor Night Life ~ Royce Howland

Sodium Vapor Night Life • click to embiggenRoyce Howland wrote; I've been a serious photographer, whatever that means, for a couple of years. Lately I'm trying to pull into my work a lot more of the non-technical side of the equation -- the art of it, encompassing whatever goes beyond the use of tools and mechanical execution. Technical mastery doesn't take that long, but all that lies beyond it will take the rest of my life, I guess.

Anyway, the discussion in the above thread prompted me to send this particular image. I called it "Sodium Vapor Night Life". Last December, a friend & I went up to Vermillion Lakes, near Banff, Alberta, for a bit of night shooting. A sunrise or sunset over Mt. Rundle and Vermillion Lakes is one of the iconic Banff area shots, and many days you can find a metric boatload of photographers lined up along various points on the shore, especially for sunsets. As soon as the "main event" is over, almost always everyone bails back to town for hot supper or whatever. My friend wanted something different and suggested that we shoot well after dark. We were the only ones out there, besides the night critters.

Weather conditions were bad, but we know that "bad weather makes good photographs" so we pressed on. This photograph was like nothing I expected when setting out. Speaking as a technical critic, it has some flaws. And of course it's not really grand, iconic, or "pretty". But it hit me in a good way, as serendipity sometimes does. Instead of a classic view of the mountain with rich, sunset-lit clouds, a rising full moon reflected in the water, etc., we have murky tones, hazy clouds, and weird artificial colors from the street lights of Banff. During the day, looking in this direction you wouldn't really know all of that developed area is over there, since it is masked behind the trees. Part of the constellation Orion is visible above Mt. Rundle, but the stars can't compete with the town lights on this night.

crafted ku # 4 - the grid # 2

Commodities in a misty spring rain • no embiggen - it's a Polaroid

As I have mentioned previously, we are very fortunate here in the Adirondack Park to have a land use oversight agency, the APA, which governs all land - public and private - use. The APA is strict and thorough.

Of course, that doesn't stop private land owners from having self-serving subdivision wet dreams.

Interestingly enough, the most responsible land owners are the big corporations - primarily lumber and mining interests - whose land is mostly idle. Over the years they have worked with the state to grant easement rights for hikers and sportsmen and, as they divest themselves of their land holdings, they most often sell to the state and the land gets added to the public lands in the park. But, of course, it's not all about being good 'citizens' - tax breaks and other $$$$$ considerations provide a nice bunch of carrots.

The biggest problem are the small private land owners, who under the guise of 'property rights', believe that they can do anything they desire with their property. For them property is an 'investment' that is intented to maximise a return on the dollar. If putting up a 12 story tower - and destroying the character of the place - accomplishes that, well, it's their 'right' to do as they wish.

The really odd thing is that many of these idiots located here for the character of the place. But apparently when it's time to get theirs, it's f*** the rest and on with my show.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, thank goodness for the APA.

Update on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 11:32AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comments: Ana asked; "Have you looked at John Pfahl? Your grid series reminds me of some of his work."

My response: You haven't been paying attention - I know John Pfahl.

crafted ku # 3 ~ the grid

Everything comes in threes • click to embiggenIn 1785 Thomas Jefferson proposed U.S. Rectangular Land Survey - commonly know as the grid. Anyone who has flown across the U.S. knows exactly what that means. Congress passed the grid system into law and from that point on this checkerboard pattern was etched from Ohio across the western U.S. - what has been called one of the most far-reaching attempts at rationalizing a landscape in world history.

This exercise was another step in the ongoing process of commodifying nature. It was, and still is, all about markets and exchange. Early settlers in America set about commodifying everything - beaver, deer, forests, water and land.

Nature as a commodity. I am not suggesting that the basic notion is wrong but I have absoutely no hesitancy in suggesting that the notion has been horribly perverted.

Update on Tuesday, May 8, 2007 at 09:06PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comments: Eric Fredine wrote; "Up here in Western Canada our spaces are big. As I've spent time exploring and photographing these spaces one thing that has come to astonish me is how radically and pervasively we have molded these spaces to human needs. And the grid fascinates me as a tangible manifestation of this. I often think of my Horizons and Roads photographs as being at least partly about the grid and its manifestation on the landscape."