Saturday
Nov292008
on the edges
Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 11:42AM 
;)
click 'er for bigger
While on a trip yesterday in search of the older Henrico County Courthouse, I was lured into this "wasteland" across the river from developed, downtown Richmond. Others may gravitate towards shops and restaraunts and bars and crowds. I am looking for evidence of some wilder aspect of life. Something that shows the natural world still abounds, even when dotted with steel towers and criss crossed by steel rails. It's a fabulous world of imagination, something like the Zone of Tarkovsky's Stalker. Without the resources of a famous Russian film maker, or those evident in the recent Crewdson book Beneath the Roses, I'm left to make pictures of what I saw one afternoon while scouting around an industrial landscape.
Reader Comments (2)
I think pictures made without all those resources are better. I am not a fan of Gregory Crewdson nor of any elaborately staged photography, for that matter. This post seems a bit like you're apologizing for your lack of resources but no apologies needed. This is a fine photograph.
Tommy, you're right, it does sound like I'm apologizing for lack of resources. I didn't mean it to sound that way. Having recently looked at Crewdson's book, I'm under it's influence, wondering what could be done with the kinds of funds he allocates to an image. I've decided I much prefer his exterior landscapes to the interior set ups, which are uncomfortably phony. But I think his landscapes are much more interesting for having people sprinkled around them, despite their zombie like poses. I find it fascinating to see what someone does who has nearly complete control of the elements of a photograph. Of course his pictures are artificial - he's simply taking photography in a more extreme direction than the rest of us.
As for this picture, if I had more time, control, money, I too would raise the camera about fifteen feet and probably put someone in the frame - although there would be no reason for someone to be in this landscape unless it was a railroad worker or a homeless person. But thanks for the compliment for the way it is.