3 posts tagged “parks”

I was listening to a podcast from Backpacking Light today about a couples' trek from the central coast of British Columbia to Jeuno, Alaska, and the subject came up that youth today don't spend as much time outside as they used to, opting, instead, to play video games, or spend time on the computer generally. They called this Nature Deficit Disorder. The term intrigued me, and when I got home, I entered the phrase into Google, and it seems, the term is bigger and more widely known and used than I thought it was. There is a book review on Salon.com (which, apparently, is a blog) that discusses NDD: what it is, what are the causes, etc...I, myself, haven't read the whole article yet (I can only get so much done in one evening), but it seems pretty interesting.
The conversation then seg-wayed to wilderness and nature, and they said a lot of things that really apply to my parks project. It was (and this is a horrible paraphrase; I'm going to need to go back and give that part of the podcast a second listen) said that some people are scared to go into nature or the wilderness. There is a lot of unpredictability and unknown in nature, and people, in my opinion, and as stated in the podcast, are scared of what they can't control and what they don't understand. So as it applies to my project, some people go to parks to stay away from the uncontrollable nature and go to a "safe" nature.
It all needs some more thinking and stewing to get my thoughts on the matter organized well enough to incorporate into my ever evolving artist statement, but it was all very interesting. I think anyone who is into the outdoors should give this one a listen. I just tried to dig it up on their website, but I didn't see the episode there, but it can be found on Itunes. Just search for Backpacking Light, and it's the episode entitled Journey on the Wild Coast: Survival Risks and is episode number 27.

To start off, I would just like to add a few quotes I read today from Robert Adam's book "Why People Photograph":

"At our best and most fortunate we make pictures because of what stands in front of the camera, to honor what is greater and more interesting than we are. We Never accomplish this perfectly, though in return we are given something perfect--a sense of inclusion. Our subject thus redefines us, and is part of the biography by which we want to be known."

"When photographers get beyond copying the achievements of others, or just repeating their own accidental first successes, they learn that they do not know where in the world they will find pictures."

"In order to make pictures that no one has made before, [photographers] have to be attentive and imaginative, qualities partly assigned and partly chosen, but in any case ones that leave them vulnerable."

It seems that ever 7-10 months I read this book, and each time I do I get something more out of it. I just began reading it again today, and those are some statements that really caught my eye, and started provoking photographic thoughts again.
I've been pretty photographically slothful the last year, which is one contribution to last night's initial discouragement, and seeming unproductivity (sp?). I hit some rut brought about by laziness, and indolence, (and to some degree, the lack of "photo buddies) and never went specifically to photograph, except for one or two occasions. The past two weeks or so, I've been a little artistically/photographically restless, and last night I chose to do something about it.

So when I pulled "Why People Photograph" off the shelf and began reading on my lunch break, the question came into my mind: "Why do I photograph?"

A few answers/follow-up-questions came to mind:

Is it merely for building a new portfolio for graduate school applications? And if so What would happen during, and after grad school? or Is it because it was something I was passionate about for 5 years, neglected it, and now the passion is returning?

I quickly shunned the former questions, and embraced the latter. Photography is something I love. Perhaps more than all the outdoor activities I participate in. Being away from it for so long created a void that I tried to fill with endless hours in front of the TV playing video games, which is something weird for a person like myself to do; I should have at least spent the time out hiking and such. About two and a half months ago, all the video games finally got boring. Boring enough for me to turn the TV off, and begin again to do yoga and spend time on my training board, and go for some short hikes and go up Little Cottonwood Canyon, and go bouldering, and, as mentioned before, I finally went out photographing yesterday evening.

And now, on to the other things I have in mind:

I mentioned Jerry Burchfield's involvement in a project documenting the conversion of a military air strip into a public park. This evening I typed his name into my browsers search field, and found his website, which has a page about that project you can view here. He also has a link to the projects website that can be found here. As far as I can tell, there hasn't been any work done yet (I'll have to spend some more time really reading more about the progress of the construction and the project; I'm short on time this evening), but the concepts and plans they have in store sound pretty interesting.

I just got back from photographing in Memorial Grove Park (yes, I'm still working on the Parks project; I have a few projects in mind that I haven't begun yet). I had passed by there a couple months ago, and it looked like it had some good potential. So, I decided to go there today, and was just a little disappointed.

It has some interesting structures and monuments, but right now, I'm not really sure they're in harmony with what the project has been all about.
I started to wander into the park, and wasn't seeing any photographs. I kept thinking "well, the light's just bad." But it wasn't really that...I think I just didn't really have my eyes open and my photographic thinking cap on just right. I finally made a few that I'm fairly pleased with. I'll know for sure once I process the negatives. But then, the last photograph I made was of the pond, and it is the epitome of what I have been saying the project is about all along. I've said, vocally, and in my artist statement, that parks are a place where people can come to enjoy a bit of nature and not have to drive a long way to get to nature. Parks are bringing nature to the city. This photograph (and I think once I get it processed, scanned, and posted, you will agree) shows just that. People relaxing, walking their dogs, enjoying nature, etc...in the park, in downtown Salt Lake City. It shows the perfect context of nature in the city, with the sky scrapers in the background. This was pretty hard to do in most of the photographs I made while I was completing my B.F.A. project, as South East Idaho is lacking in the sky scraper area, and that thought didn't occur to me when I made the few photographs I included from Seattle. So I think now that the thought finally has hit (and it's only taken three years), that idea will become visually clear, not just something the viewer has to read in a statement.