I’ve just returned from my trip to Utah in pursuit of earlier denizens, the Anasazi. Like the proverbial tourist, I won’t know what it was like until I’ve seen my pictures. Not because I never took my camera from my eye — it was there less than 1% of the time — but because the trip is not over yet. I’m done exploring the canyons for now, but I’ve just begun to explore the latent content of my experiences and the images captured by my camera. That will take longer, and I know there’s plenty of discovery still to happen. Nevertheless, one idea can be identified that is not entirely a surprise.
A line from June’s recent post on abstract expressionism struck me: “It’s big. You can walk into the art.” That’s how it felt walking up and down the streambeds between cliff walls. In the large there were the regular forms and desert colors we know from O’Keefe. But limit attention to a smaller canvas, and the jumbled geology had a much more abstract feel. Depending on the sandstone layer, it was reminiscent of the rounded shapes of the Krasner, the planes of the Frank, or the dark confusion of the Hartigan that June showed us.
My opening image, with its stark, jagged pattern of light and shade, is rather like the Clyfford Still style we’ve talked about, and which I seem to have an affinity for. The next makes me think of Diebenkorn, though I don’t really know his work that well. Of course, color was important to both those artists, which suddenly makes me want to look into color versions of these images; something for another time.
But these are not, after all, imaginary compositions; they are real places. To the extent the images are documentary, like most photographs, they provide some objective information about the world. But my wish (I’m with you, Sunil) is to have their abstraction also convey meaning. That the human traces are small compared to the “meaningless” rock, and are mysteriously hidden, is fully intentional. That’s both real — most ruins are hard to see at first, second, even third glance — and a subjective impression that is one aspect of how I feel about these places. This is work in progress, but some themes are emerging that will probably remain in final versions.
How do these images work for you? Are the ruins too hidden, did you look away before noticing them? (This will certainly happen if you’re not seeing gradations in the dark parts of the image, like the equal step gradations in this monitor check.) What do they remind you of or make you think about?
Steve,
Glad to hear that enjoyed your trip. The photos that you present are good and I wish I had some more to look at. I like the second picture of the overhang (or is it a crag)… I would also be interested in looking at a color picture of this to see some more of the gradations that the rock face displays. With reference to meaning I find the second picture speaking to me about the geology inherent in the rocks, the various strata shaped by upheavals that displays these forms today and then supplanted by something completely different a thousand years from now. Reminds me of the ceaseless shapes of the clouds sculpted by the winds – only this time the rocks are sculpted in super slow motion by raw forces…
Steve,
Having grown up looking out over the North Sea, my first response to your images is fear to be crushed .
I like these images as well. I like having to search in the shadows, but I am not totally sure what I am looking at, not being very familiar with these ruins. I looked up other photos of them and got the idea of what they look like out in the open. So, if you want that sort of clarity or exposition (is that the word?) to appear within the shadows, I don’t think that is there, but I don’t know that you need that. Seems like they are not as much about the ruins as they are about the act of looking and searching and uncovering. I too am eager to see them in color. Of course I am a sucker for color:)
Hey Steve,
Welcome back! In the first image I don’t see the ruins really, although I can identify them because you mentioned them. The second image makes me shiver. It looks like that dwelling will be crushed.
What I see in the second image is a representation of real rocks. That’s where the image gets its power. If you blurred some subtle details of the rocks so that they became abstractions, the picture would have an entirely different meaning. The rocks would lose their weight. There is nothing about those rocks that conveys a sense of hardness or weight that can be separated from their identity as rocks. At an abstract level, the contrasts are soft. Aside from some jagged lines, the rocks could almost be clouds.
In the first image, there is more abstraction in the rocks. The strong shadow, without a clear shadow casting form, becomes abstraction. It breaks the form of the rocks, and they lose their weight.
For comparison, here’s a quick job of a color version of #2. The ruin is also slightly lighter, therefore more visible.
Steve,
Now it is abstraction with meaning ;-).
The color brings out the silhouettes of the ruins and I think that is key.
I prefer the b+w. the Rock looks more interesting and the shock value of the fear to be crushed is greater for me.
I’ve updated the images to show the ruins better, as this was clearly a problem. Alas, one of the weaknesses of the web vs. actual prints for viewing images. Part of what I’m still working on is the balance of clarity vs. hiddenness, which varies for different viewers as well as different media.
Birgit,
That’s a good point about the B&W vs. the color version. I like the color better than I expected to, but it does have a less oppressive feel. On the other hand, I don’t want to over-dramatize that.
Karl,
Interesting you should mention clouds. In fact, we seem to expect clouds in the sky over a house — think of a typical kid’s drawing of home. In some of my other shots (not yet processed) I consciously play on that association, which I think can be effective in drawing us to the image even if unconscious.
Steve, I especially like the first photo. But I can’t say I really see the ruins. I mean, knowing there are ruins there, I can make a guess as to what shapes they are, but otherwise I would never notice them.
What I like about the first image is that, especially in the upper 2/3 of the photo, I can really feel my eyes adjusting back and forth to see the detail in the light and then in the shadow. It evokes the experience of walking around in a canyon on a sunny day.
I don’t much respond much to the color version of #2. It feels more like a colorized b&w image than a color photo, and I think it works better in b&w.
I look forward to seeing more images from your trip!
Steve,
Terrific photos.I didn’t sense clouds or anything soft — the slices in the rock, its very gltter, seem hard.