Category: Black & White

01 Feb

When All Signs of Life Are Gone, All We Have Left Are the “Remains of a Day”

In exploring the old Fort Ransom farm, I made a point of capturing still life images of objects where I found them. I did not remove anything or setup any props. I wanted to capture the objects as time and the elements placed them. “Remains of a Day” epitomizes this goal.

This photograph captured along side one of the houses shows the remains of a barrel, most likely used to collect rain water. Also the chair is found where it tipped over and then was overgrown by the North Dakota tall grass. Like the stories of how the desert reclaims its cover and control over time, the same is true with the tall grass in North Dakota. Again, the similar cracked textures of the dried grass and the cracked wood compliment each other in their aged condition through the format of black and white film.

Later Today I will be selecting a winner of one of my FREE prints from my email list of subscribers. I will contact them via email and announce the winner in my next News posting.

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30 Jan

“Stove and Straw” Shows Textured Contrast in Black and White Photography

One of the aspects of black and white photography where it truly excels is in the area of capturing textures. Sometimes without the distraction of color, black and white photographs can almost take on a 3d appearance. This was my exercise in capturing the “Stove and “Straw.” The cast iron stove created a stark textured contrast between the iron and the tall grass with which it has stood for decades.

This abandoned Fort Ransom farm in southeastern North Dakota was my photographic classroom for 6 long years and longer. From still life to landscape subjects, and even the occasional low light captures, it provided a great opportunity with countless subjects to choose.

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25 Jan

The “Wooden Wagon” Captures the Remains of This Piece of Farming History

Over the past 26 years, my capture of this old “Wooden Wagon” has been one of my more popular photographs. The texture of the old faded and cracked wood, contrasted with the tall grass gives an almost 3d effect in black and white.

This old wagon was prominent in the field of the old homestead. Most likely used to carry grain, manure, or other such uses made this an important asset to the farm and its sustainability. This would have been a wagon initially used by drawn horses, and maybe later pulled by a motorized tractor until the wood was too old and brittle to function anymore. This was an important piece of agricultural history and serves as an example how old technology gives way to new in all areas of our everyday lives.

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23 Jan

The Erie Haunt of the “The Homestead”

Past the overgrown driveway of the Fort Ransom “Guarding Gate” lies “The Homestead. ” It consists of 3 full size houses, each one larger than the next. The haunted, open-air windows no longer held any glass, as only the harsh North Dakota elements and ghosts of the past now resided here.
The floors were unstable with an eerie warping of the wood which gave a surreal appears to the structures. In the smaller house parts of the floor had given way to reveal the cistern well below, as a small piano held on at the edge of the living room. One of the creepiest sights was a kitchen table set for a meal, covered with decades of dust where the resident never came back.
I almost always visited this location alone. When I discovered that under the floor of one of the houses was a cistern well with an unknown depth, I did not risk entering any of the homes. For if I fell through the floor, there would be no one coming to help.

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11 Jan

The Solid and the Shadow of “Arches” Captured at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead, Minnesota

One of my very early black and white film captures explored architecture, light, and shadow in the photograph “Arches.” This photograph was captured at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead, Minnesota. The center first opened in 1985 and is the home of the Hjemkomst Viking ship. It is a full scale replica of the Gokstad Viking ship that was discovered in Norway in 1880.
Photo courtesy of Trip Advisor.
The building captured in my photograph “Arches” is the exterior of the Hopperstad Stave Church replica, on the grounds of the Hjemkomst Center. In the photo I wanted to captured both the actual arches and the shadows of the arches in the same photo with strong depth of field. This was one of my earlier photos experimenting with black and white film and bracketing my shots with various shutter speeds, so as to not lose the details in the light or the dark areas. This particular photograph was a strong reference point for me and my work in my development of composition and lighting.

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09 Jan

My First Low Light, Long Exposure Photograph Captured in “All Tied In”

As I evolved from documentarist into artist I developed an increasing love of the black & white film format. In high school I spent a very brief amount of time learning the basic mechanics of 35mm film photography, along with film development and printing in a lab at Clayton High School in St.Louis, Missouri in the mid 1980’s. However, for the following years I actually did very little with those skills, other than taking simple snapshots and took little thought behind them.

Near a decade had gone by until I found myself hitting rock bottom, of sorts, where I longed for a mission, a creative outlet. Exploring the vast reaches of North Dakota with its landscape, big sky, and remnants of days gone by became that outlet. I acquired a copy of Photoshop 5 and began taking photos and posting on a website called “Best Photo” to get critiques of my work.

I also dug deeper into perfecting the mechanics and process of approaching and capturing subjects. Being relatively new to photography, I also bracketed my shots by shooting at a few different shutter speeds in an attempt to get just the right capture. I carried a little notebook for years, noting each shot, like a scientist constantly conducting experiments. I have always been a big fan of very depth-of-field photos, the kind that really suck you into the photo. Shooting with an aperture of f/22 with a tripod is usually my solid go-to, and certainly was back then.

With any camera I would still recommend taking notes of your shots with new photographers, because each camera has its own idiosyncrasies and understanding how things differ between your settings and your result is helpful to know. This is much like knowing the slight light and dark differences between the image you upload to an online printer, and the printed product you receive.

“All Tied In” was my first attempt at a long exposure, low light photograph on film. I wanted to be sure to capture the texture of the old wood. I also wanted to capture the texture and detail of the large collection of hay bail twain, most likely discarded over many, many years. These visual elements really told a story to me of the animals that once lived here and the hard work performed in their tending.

Years later I still find myself staring into these photos from North Dakota and imagining the lives of the people who lived and worked there. Photography is so much like a time machine or a window into the dimension of time. It bookmarks a moment and suspends it in an image we can re-visit again and again. “All Tied In” may reach back to 1998, but with its undisturbed setting it reaches back decades further.

If you’d like to purchase your own print of “All Tied In,” you can find it here. Prints are available in metal, canvas, or photographic print. Contact me directly about Limited Prints.

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04 Jan

Launching New Projects in 2024, While Remembering “Window to the Past” 26 Years Ago

As we embark into 2024 I look back on a creative photographic career spanning 26 years of serious fine art photography. In 1998 I found myself roaming the back roads of southeastern North Dakota, an explorer looking for purpose. In my wandering I discovered silent beauty in abandoned farms, frozen in time yet gradual in their decay. I couldn’t help but wonder what these places looked like when the wood was new and the paint was still wet. Trimmed fields and the sounds of families living and working on the land to build themselves a better and more independent life. With Minolta X-370 and a 50mm lens, I began to capture these places less like an artist and more like and archeologist. It was a documentation process as I was in awe of the places I found, having just moved from South St.Louis, Missouri.

North Dakota was a visual culture shock for me. With its minimal trees and open spaces, it was like no place I had lived before. Groups of trees in the open country usually only concealed a river, a house, or provided a windbreak for farmers’ fields. The rest of the areas you could literally see for miles, and the eastern side of North Dakota is among the flattest in the state. I used to joke that the wind began in the middle of Montana, where the Rocky Mountains end and blows all the way to the Minnesota/North Dakota border with no stopping. Living in North Dakota from 1998 to 2004 was an experience I treasured for its unique opportunity to explore the landscape, the backroads, and the wonderful people I met along the way.

The Swamp

Like I mentioned my approach to capturing the back roads in my mind was more like a photojournalist, or what a photojournalist might do as I was not one. In my effort to photograph these places I tried to add a little creativity on the black & white film. The result of that first discovery of abandoned places was the photograph “Window to the Past.” The image was truly emblematic to me of looking through a window, with no glass, into a past that was fading from its war with the elements. Each place I found that one was as much an exploration as it was a walk through history. Imagine walking through the days of the book “The Grapes of Wrath.”

My first creative photograph is really the best place to begin for what I have coming in 2024. In the coming days, weeks, and months I am going to tell the stories of my travels there and the images I have collected along the way. The only way we can truly appreciated the ‘here and now’ is to live in that moment, to recognize it and savor it, because it will never be the same. I knew I would someday return back to Missouri so I tried to take every chance I could to explore this unique state filled with vistas and textures that any photographer would be blessed for a chance to capture. In those days I was blessed.

In the coming year I will be offering Limited & Open Prints, announcing upcoming art exhibits, and am working on publishing photo zines. I invite you to come along by Signing Up for notifications when I make new posts and announcing upcoming events, like an art show on the schedule for April. Also, I will be giving away FREE prints in the coming weeks and months, and will be drawing names from my Subscriber list so don’t miss out. You can Subscribe to my upcoming posts  on my website in the right column.

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