Posted by Noah on February 20, 2011 – 6:11 PM
This set of images is from a brand new series… the newest of new really. I shot a good portion of these within the last three days, and I only just finished scanning this particular set early this afternoon. This new series is tentatively entitled, “Somewhere, America.” Here is my artist’s statement…
As a whole, the American roadside landscape has become highly gentrified. Almost no matter where we are traveling in this country we encounter the same roadside motifs. Gas stations, parking lots, signage, fast food restaurants, rest areas, other vehicles, and maybe the occasional motel on a longer journey. It gives the feeling that although we’re always somewhere, we could be almost anywhere.
This is especially true at night where the more distant landscape which defines a particular region is obscured by darkness. Yet as banal and ordinary as these ever-present roadside motifs are, we are all still constantly recording their visual stimulus as memories, fleeting as these may be. The American roadside landscape is a visual vernacular we all understand, even if it’s unintentional, as it’s imbedded on our collective subconscious.
By grouping four different motifs together as a single piece I want to allow free association between the individual images, thus constructing a visual framework to which each viewer will add their own thoughts, feelings, and memories about the American roadside landscape. “Somewhere, America” is intended to give each viewer a unique, albeit fractured narrative which examines a major facet of our automotive driven culture.
Posted by Noah on March 4, 2010 – 11:47 AM
Filed under 8x10, Thoughts
I’m going to Fotofest at the end of the month and I’m going to show a portfolio of 20 images from my Blue Water series. I wanted to select my strongest images while still showing the diversity and breadth of the series. Here’s the selection I’m planning on showing…
Posted by Noah on December 21, 2009 – 1:47 AM
Freighters photographs are often about as interesting as your average band photo… in the fact that they aren’t interesting at all. Particularly in the Blue Water area in which I live, bad ship pictures are about as expected as bad pet pictures most places. But I have no problem using subject matter that flirts with cliché, since if I’m doing so it’s in a thoughtful, intentional way. I’m really happy with how this image turned out. I think it has a kind brooding, mysterious quality that I’ve never seen before in a picture of a freighter. I’m planning on using it in the conceptual series I mentioned in my last post.
Posted by Noah on December 19, 2009 – 11:50 PM
I’ve been really busy for the last couple of months and I haven’t been able to post, but I’ve been working on a lot of new stuff. I’m almost finished with a new conceptual series, so I figured I’d post a few images I’m planning on using for it in the meantime until it’s done. I’m planning for the series to have a darker mood than any of my previous work, but in a very subtle way. I want it to be something that leaves the viewer with the sense that there’s something a bit off, nothing too obvious but still retaining that slightly foreboding undercurrent. I think this motel image is a pretty good example of the type of feeling the series will have, although as a whole it’s going to feature all sorts of different types of subject matter since it’s based around the underlying concept.
Posted by Noah on October 19, 2009 – 1:23 AM
With the announcement of the demise of Polaroid last fall, I decided I wanted to do one last project with one of my favorite films. I already had 100 sheets of 600 film I had bought before they discontinued production, so I thought that doing a conceptual project that required that I shoot each image with a high degree intentionality would be a good way to send off a medium that had helped define one of my two major shooting aesthetics. I decided that a road trip with my sister would be a good subject for the series, as it would allow me to combine one of the main themes of my work, road trips, with a more personal element by including a large number of images of my sister. The series functions as a personal photographic dairy of sorts… it give the viewer a chance to see our 4 day, nearly 2000 mile road trip from January 3rd to January 6th the way I saw it as it was happening. The sights I’m drawn to aren’t necessarily the most well know, iconic, or traditionally photogenic places that we passed along the way, but rather the things I’m seeing and experiencing as I traverse the northeastern US and Canada with a close companion. I view the series as the most personal body of work that I’ve ever created, as the intimate subject matter I chose to include decreases the austere, aesthetic distance I usually place between my subject and myself when shooting. Out of my looser, more spontaneous, offhand work that characterized my use of Polaroid 600 film, I view this series as my greatest achievement.
After I made January 3rd to January 6th into a handmade artist book that I’m extremely proud of, I decided I would try making it available as a blurb book to increase it’s potential of being seen. Here’s a link to January 3rd to January 6th on the blurb website.
Here’s my artists statement for the series as it appears in forward of the book…
As I walked through the cold morning air on January 3rd, I snapped my first image before I left my driveway. I then set out on the road with a map, a general direction, and the intent to create a personal body of work using my 100 remaining sheets of Polaroid film. With my sister as my traveling companion for the next four days, we drove 1875 miles across the Northeastern United States and Canada. After we returned to my house on January 6th, I said goodbye to my sister and captured my final image with my Polaroid camera. The following pages present these 100 images in the sequence they were taken as an intimate document of my road trip.
Posted by Noah on September 26, 2009 – 12:38 PM
Here’s another image I shot the other day when I was in Toledo. I had wanted to shoot this new freeway overpass over the Maumee River on I-280 since they begin construction on it several years ago, since I really like clean lines of the new bridges architecture.
Posted by Noah on September 25, 2009 – 3:14 PM
I shot this image of a factory while I was in Toledo, Ohio last week. I was really drawn to how the sweet light rendered the smoke stacks, water tower, buildings, and power lines as highly graphic elements against the gradated sky. In some ways, this image reminds me a lot of the many photographers from the 1920’s and 1930’s who photographed industry in a highly romanticized way to showcase the power of industrial progress.
Posted by Noah on September 24, 2009 – 12:36 PM
When I saw this scene a few weeks ago, I was immediately drawn to the extreme texture and monochromatic color palette created by the early evening sweet light. I really like the mood that quality of light reflecting off the wet pavement creates in this image, as well as graphic interaction between the arrow, puddle, and parking lot lines.
Posted by Noah on September 23, 2009 – 10:57 AM
Filed under 4x5, Thoughts
Here’s an image a shot a few years ago with my 4×5 while I was in Florida. I’ve always really liked the mood of this photograph, since I took it right after a rainstorm. I originally included it in the same open conceptual series as my Emergency sign image which I posted a few of weeks ago, but as I mentioned then, I was never entirely happy with that series. But looking back, I do actually like the associative interaction between this image and the emergency sign though. Perhaps I should work them into a new conceptual series…
Posted by Noah on September 22, 2009 – 4:51 PM
For quite a while now, I’ve been noticing McDonald’s restaurants located in very close proximity to power plants, landfills, and other forms of industry that generally would be considered an unsightly backdrop for an eating establishment. I’ve thought about doing a series on this rather unusual and ironic phenomenon for a while now, but now that I’ve got a good start, I’m actually going to begin working on the series. This particular photograph was taken from inside of the McDonald’s in Trenton, Michigan. I find it to be a rather unsettling image, which I greatly enjoy personally. I can only hope that I’m able to capture other images with a similar feeling.
Posted by Noah on September 19, 2009 – 12:21 PM
Here’s another brand new image I shot the same day as the previous post by the new construction that’s taking place on the Marathon refinery in Detroit. Apparently I was particularly drawn to using power lines as a compositional element in the top of the frame that day, although it’s not really surprising considering that they are such an ever present element in urban/industrial areas.
Posted by Noah on September 18, 2009 – 11:45 AM
I just shot image a couple of days ago, so it’s brand new. I took this photograph in Delray, a residential section of Detroit surrounded by heavy industry, which is know as one of the most polluted area’s of the city. I discovered Delray after a few years back while I was looking around the industrial section of Detroit, and I’ve always found it a very surreal place.
Posted by Noah on September 17, 2009 – 12:40 PM
Here’s a new image I shot in Detroit the other day. I was drawn to the high key lighting of the scene, since it feels rather different than the lighting conditions you usually find in Michigan, or at least different than the lighting conditions that I tend to shoot. I also like how the tracks in the dirt lead you into the frame as the trailers serve to frame the shot on both sides while obscuring what is behind them, thus creating just a little bit of visual mystery.
Posted by Noah on September 16, 2009 – 5:16 PM
Here’s an editorial image I did a couple years back of a rather sad looking blue popsicle in the process of melting. The vintage linoleum floor looks like it’s enjoying itself though.
Posted by Noah on September 15, 2009 – 11:16 AM
Here’s something a bit different too… I shot earlier this year while I was messing around with an old Polaroid Land camera I borrowed from a colleague. As we all know by now, Polaroid is no longer making film, so decided to try shooting with one of Fuji’s instant films which are newly available in the US market since the demise of Polaroid. I shot this with Fuji FC 100P instant medium format peel apart film. Regarding the unusual subject matter… someone told me they’d like to see what it would be like for me to shoot a still life. This was my answer.
Posted by Noah on September 14, 2009 – 11:06 AM
Filed under 4x5, Thoughts
Here’s a something a little out of the ordinary for me… I shot this rather abstracted architectural detail as part of an editorial spread on the New Studio Building at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Cranbrook is known for having some of the best contemporary architecture in Michigan, and they aren’t known for always giving photographers permission, so I’m glad I got the opportunity.
Posted by Noah on September 13, 2009 – 4:58 PM
Posted by Noah on September 10, 2009 – 5:19 PM
Since I started this blog a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been posting older work that I haven’t shown before, but now I’ve finally posted my first brand new image. I shot this last week in the main hall at the Detroit Institute of Arts. An interior designer that I’ve sold a considerable amount of work to in the past, is interested in commissioning some architectural interiors of neoclassical buildings, in a similar vein as Thomas Struth’s Museum Photographs for a large home he’s decorating, so this is my answer to his request. If I get the commission, I’ll probably visit other art museums to capture more images in a similar style.
Posted by Noah on September 8, 2009 – 3:37 PM
Here’s a self portrait I did last year of me wearing Ray Ban Wayfarers, which are undoubtedly one of the most iconic and classic sunglasses designs of all time. I wanted the image to have a stylized, high fashion type look. Kind of like if Juergen Teller shot band photos.
Posted by Noah on September 7, 2009 – 3:34 PM
Filed under 4x5, Thoughts
Here’s an image I shot a few winters ago of the St. Clair River in Port Huron, just before I started working on my Blue Water series. I’ve always liked the empty the mood of this image, it kind reminds me of Alec Soth’s work from Sleeping by the Mississippi, which is actually one of my inspirations for the Blue Water series. If you haven’t seen it before, check out Alec Soth’s work at alecsoth.com, it’s very good.
Posted by Noah on September 6, 2009 – 3:19 PM
Filed under 4x5, Thoughts
Here’s an environmental portrait I did a couple of years ago of Matt Chung, a friend and fellow photographer at the College for Creative Studies. Matt has made extensive use of a flatbed scanner to capture extremely detailed images of ordinary surfaces, which as I noted in a previous post, is a technique I’ve also made use of for scanning packages. The portrait depicts Matt scanning a crack in the cement floor of the CCS basement, which was a project he was actually working on at the time. The way the extreme detail and the large scale of his prints transform familiar surfaces with a sense of hyperrealism is quite incredible. Matt is one of the finest photographers that has come out of CCS for quite sometime, you should check out his work at mattchung.com
Posted by Noah on September 4, 2009 – 5:04 PM
Filed under Scans, Thoughts
Here are a couple of images from an ongoing series on condiment packages. I created this series using a flatbed scanner instead of camera, so that the packages surface would be presented evenly lit and in extreme detail. I started off the series by doing opposites types of condiment packages such as the sugar and artificial sweetener seen here. I’ll post more images from the series in the future.
Posted by Noah on September 3, 2009 – 3:15 PM
Filed under 4x5, Thoughts
Here’s an editorial architectural shot of the Yamaski building at the College for Creative Studies. Although it’s a more commercial type work then I usually post on my blog, I’ve always liked the symmetry and order of the lines within the image.
Posted by Noah on September 2, 2009 – 12:04 PM
Filed under 4x5, Thoughts
I shot this image a few years back when I was in Florida shooting signs at night with my 4×5 camera. I included in a very open conceptual series I did back then which I wasn’t entirely happy with, but I’ve always been very fond of this image. I really like how insistent the word EMERGENCY appears in connection with the dark, mysterious background, and the arrow pointing ambiguously towards something outside of the frame. Looking at it again kind of makes me want to go shoot some more signs at night with my 4×5.
Posted by Noah on August 31, 2009 – 3:23 PM
Filed under 4x5, Thoughts
Here’s a small open narrative series I did a couple of years ago that I haven’t shown for a while. There’s something unknown the main character keeps encountering that is making him increasingly surprised, and possibly a bit disturbed. What exactly is happening open for the viewer to decide, but it’s meant to be mysterious… as well as rather amusing.
Posted by Noah on August 30, 2009 – 2:55 PM
Filed under 4x5, Thoughts
Here’s a triptych of the backside of a block building in the River Rouge area I shot a while back with my 4×5 camera. I was in the area shooting images of a steel mill when I ran across this gritty, yet minimal structure. I was very drawn to how the sweet light raking over the surfaces really emphasized their texture.
Posted by Noah on August 29, 2009 – 9:22 AM
Filed under 4x5, Thoughts
Here’s a fun self portrait I did about a year and a half ago, but I’ve never really shown before. I thought the fake wood panelling would be a nice backdrop to complement my ridiculous mustache and deer art collection.
Posted by Noah on August 28, 2009 – 6:19 PM
Posted by Noah on August 27, 2009 – 4:10 PM
In addition to continuing to update my main website with new work periodically, I’ve started this blog to add a more interactive and regularly updated element to my online presence. I plan on trying to post at least one an image every day, whether it’s something I’ve just shot, or an older image that I haven’t shown before. I may also occasionally post thoughts or stories relating to my images or just photography in general. Please feel free to comment on any of the posts, I enjoy receiving any kind of feedback.
Thanks to Jason Keen for this portrait.
