colby caldwell.
“We are looking for ways to realize that we are not observers of nature but within it, but we can approach nature only by observing and imagining—one way or another making pictures—for which we use tools of light. Maybe we should try looking in the dark. In the space between light and dark.” - Bernard Welt poet/writer
I collect what could be thought of as visual "field recordings." I’m less interested in precisely cataloging samples, and more interested in investigating which tools we use to do so.
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garlands.
With garlands, I push how different light sources (scanner = artificial | outside = natural light) intermingle and generate depth. Everything in the photograph is done “in camera” - no digital trickery after the fact. Thus, the idea of “still life” becomes less about dead nature (nature morte) and more about active and improvisational “drawing”. The natural world is alive and ever-evolving.
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otff.
This work happens on the forest floor with a flatbed scanner as my makeshift camera. I’ve used the scanner-as-camera in my studio in the past. It occurred to me that I could take it out to the woods for new reconnaissance. For new inquiries. I think of it like collecting field recordings — allowing, listening, seeing.
