Portfolio of Works

Florence through a Plastic Lens

The photos in this book represent images taken during a three week trip with the Southwest School of Art in August 2016.  The assignment was to make artwork with plastic, medium format, Holga cameras.  We processed our film in Florence and most of the print making was completed in San Antonio.  Having experienced the highs and many lows of taking photos with a Holga, I supplemented my experience with a Canon Rebel 35mm film camera.  Amazingly, the Holga provided a different look at Florence.

We had three weeks to take in Florence, soak up as much of its history and extensive collection of renaissance art and architecture, and make artwork with our plastic “toy” cameras.  It was a whirlwind; we worked hard, walked for miles, and had a truly transformative experience.

All Holga images were captured on Kodak Tri-X 400 speed film. Canon images were captured on Ilford Delta 100 speed film.

This series of photographs is loosely built on the song “Heartland” written by the group U2.  While the song’s focus is primarily on the land cut by the Mississippi River, the lyrics move beyond this local to an area, for me, represented by the plains of west Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Alaska.  

A series of lyrics highlight my trips from San Antonio to Colorado. “Freeway, like a river cuts through this land, into the side of love, like a burning spear. And the poison rain brings a flood of fear, through the ghost ranch hills.”  The landscape of this area is dotted by a number of small towns.  While some towns have maintained open businesses, others have become more ghost than active.  For some, the business signs of pre-interstate highway remain unused, weathered by time.  In thriving areas, new life has been provided.

The same signs exist in the larger cities.  For some, the neon of the past age remain, shining great light, while others, the neon long burned out, sit in front of closed businesses or those that have lost their past luster and glory.

In this body of work primary focus has been the signs of the past, but also on all aspects of past American history are included. 

I had also been fascinated by airplanes.  I have memories of my dad driving the family to Stapleton Airport in Denver to watch the jets, watching planes from a great distance in circling patterns as they arrived in Denver on a cold Christmas Eve night, to working near the end of an active air field as F-16 and C-5 jets rumbled over head.  So, on a cloud free Saturday afternoon, I headed with camera in hand to take photos of the display air craft at Lackland AFB.  From that initial day, I returned several times, to get a little closer and to discover the finer details and amazing workmanship of the planes.  

The photos contained in this work display a sense of history and my engineering curiosity of how things are put together.  The aircraft represent work horses from World War II through Viet Nam and the present, transports to bombers, trainers to fighters.  They also represent the aviation advances from propeller to jet technology.  What remains consistent for all the air craft are the engineering aspects that keep skin of the aircraft together.  Bolts and rivets keep the metal shells together.  Heavy mechanical structures are required for the aircraft to land.

I chose black and photography with standard silver gelatin printing to display the art.  The prints have the nostalgic feel for the era, but the black and white prints extend beyond the nostalgic.  The essence of the mechanical would be lost with standard color printing.  The delicate dents and imperfections could be lost in the color scheme of the plane.