Artist Statement
The photographs in the Desert Realty and Urban Realty series are of single, isolated buildings, mostly abandoned, either in the desert or in urban environments. Some of the images have a nostalgic, sad, wistful quality to them; others are beautiful, or dramatic, or ominous. At the same time, the work affectionately sees in its subjects the humorous, the incongruous, and the absurd. The photographs comment on the folly of sterile fast food outlets and the pathos of optimistic dreams that are now in ruins.
These images have been digitally manipulated so that their essence can be clearly seen, unobstructed by any distractions. The buildings in the photographs have been rendered in a mythical, pristine state, making them in effect architectural models of themselves. To achieve this, adjoining structures, parked cars, and everything extraneous has been edited out. New elements have been imported into the scene: a tree, a new sky, a range of mountains. Through digital reconstruction, an idealized vision of the buildings and their environment is created.
The structures in these pictures were found in Los Angeles and in the desert beyond it. The photographs begin by seeking out the remarkable in seemingly unremarkable buildings. In taking the initial picture, the final image is visualized, so that there is an unbroken line from camera to computer, where the manipulation takes place. While the basic concept is thought out, the final image is realized through an unconscious process.
The digital reworking of the image pushes the idea of photography as honestly documenting reality to its limits. However, this dissembling is in the tradition of art photography, that since its inception has used poetic visual fictions to speak the truth. The work straddles the line between reportage and fantasy. These photographs offer the viewer an enhanced sense of how very ordinary things can be remarkable, beautiful, even moving, when seen in an appreciative light.
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