It was the worst of times and the best of times.
1.Mustang, Indiana. 2.Trucks, Indiana. 3. Crossroads, Ohio. 4.Crosses, New Mexico. 5.Iceland.
My guess is that most photographers get to the end of the year and look back on what they have done. Some will have shot thousands of frames, Some a few hundreds, some not so many, and some, none at all. The late, great, Ansel Adam’s claimed if you got 12 good images a year (with an emphasis on good), you were doing well. Although this is something most would ridicule these days having no understanding of large format cameras and the struggles thereof.
For me this has been a good year photographically for reasons I will go into, but the downside is that it has also been the most tragic. We only need to look back through the history of art to see that so often, adversity makes way for great art, or to put it another way, no one goes out with a camera on a sunny day feeling happy and produces something thought provoking.
Indiana is possibly the strangest place I have ever been to. In a land where everyone seems content and happy with their lives, for me there was always a feeling of impending doom. Maybe it was being a thousand miles from the ocean, or IMO a poor quality of life for many there, but I was never able to put my finger on it. I think this image does a good job of showing a once better time. The classic car, now rusty and falling apart, as is the house with descending fog and humidity on a daily basis. There was always a sense of this is it, it was once good, but its not getting better.
Another image from Indiana made on the coldest day of the year (-40f). This image does a good job of showing the harshness of the winters in Middle America. I did not see a single other person on this day. “Only an Englishman would go out with his camera while everyone else stayed inside.” I have always liked the idea of photographing harsh environments, but despite being to a few places of extreme weather, this really was something else.
During the road trip to Middle America from California, I began shooting black and white. After a decade of just color, it was a bit of a revelation and I felt like an artist again. At a time when digital had become about who has the most megapixels, it was great going back to a more pure, hands on approach, and the nostalgia of the great American road trip. This was one image where everything fell into place. The light on the sign and the shadow on the road, together with the stormy sky made for probably my favorite image of the year.
All I will say about this image is that there was lightning strikes all around me and I was standing in an open field.
It had been more that 10 years since I last visited Iceland. The first time was in the mid 90’s and it was there that I started shooting color film for the first time. Going there this year I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to shoot and how I wanted the images to look with this image ticking all the boxes.
Overall I have produced what I would consider some of my best work. The bright vivid colors of my earlier work are no longer, but this is something that has been gradual over the years. The techniques have not changed and the cameras remain the same.
It was the worst of times and the best of times.
