Exhibition Dates
November 3 – December 8, 2011
About the Exhibit...
Though the title suggests iconographic destinations and "Kodak Moments" a tourist might associate with an American landscape such as the Grand Canyon or Yosemite, Anne Gridley and Gary Graves' American Scenics are those places constructed by human hands and identified by place names only.
These landscapes and cityscapes are often discovered by chance en route from one place to another as their commercial photography assignments dictate.
Gridley's interest is with the vernacular landscape of backyards, how the plot of land surrounding a house is altered and shaped by its inhabitants, specifically with this series: lawn ornamentation depicting deer and other yard creations. It is the American tradition of creating a version of the natural landscape for one's yard dating back to the late 19th century as theorized by her great uncle, the landscape theorist J. B. Jackson.
Graves' subjects are often color dominant, mundane and ordinary; they are sought after as personal challenges to understanding photography and photographic seeing. His work may be less documentary in scope than hers but the two bodies of work are created parallel to one another as loosely based collaborations; talking about the photograph that was just taken during a car ride feeds the investigation into the work close in time and impetus to the click of the shutter.
This work is about ideas, and the actual photograph, a byproduct of their response to what is found in the field. Formally each is similar in their approach: film based cameras and digitally generated color inkjet prints.