Featured Artist...Deon Reynolds

This week we come back to the U.S.A. and take a look at the West through the eyes of Deon Reynolds who captures its essence with his panoramic views in his series
"Where the Cowboys Once Roamed".

"...I began exploring ideas and images for ‘Where the Cowboys Once Roamed’ when I was creating scenic
photos for the coffee table book ‘NEVADA’. Originally, I was captivated by the beautiful landscapes of
the high desert".

From seven years old his interest sparked by his brother using dad's camera, a Hasselblad, he took his first lessons. On his father's advice together they built a pinhole camera out of Kodak Film boxes and learned his craft in the darkroom.

Educated in Portland at the then "Museum Art School" he began his career shooting catalogs and advertisements until he realized this was not what he really wanted to do but afforded him the freedom to pursue the artist in him.

" I began exploring ideas and images for ‘Where the Cowboys Once Roamed’ when I was creating scenic
photos for the coffee table book ‘NEVADA’. Originally, I was captivated by the beautiful landscapes of the high desert. Though, during my travels through the state I found evidence of an era gone by and realized it was deteriorating rather quickly. Around that same time, I began playing with Kodak Funsaver Panoramic 35 disposable cameras and found the format complimented the landscape while the low-fi camera quality evoked a sense of history creating the perfect look for my new found,disintegrating subject matter". 

 For those of us who have had the opportunity to have been out west, we have experienced what these images how well...wide open spaces with freedom to roam in a big sky country. Deon lives today with his wife Trish in Eureka in an 1880s bank building where they operate the Eureka Gallery 

More of his work can be seen here

Featured Artist...Stuart McCall

This week we receive work through the eyes of Stuart McCall, a Vancouver, BC based photographer, who shows us his panoramic scenes of the deserts of Nevada and northern Mexico.

He began his career as a commercial photographer in 1982. Since then, his images have been published widely, featured in  Time Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Saturday Night, Photography Monthly, Boston Globe, Times of London, as well as in books by National Geographic and Douglas & McIntyre. His work has been recognized by Communication Arts, the Lotus Awards, and International Photography awards.

"The desert has fascinated me for some time.  It is a place where the climate and environment are quite incompatible with human survival.  Scarcity of water, and extremes of heat and cold are typical…  Yet people have been inhabiting and trying to make a living in deserts since time immemorial. Many come, but few stay on.   The extremes of climate have the ability to preserve traces of past activity in a remarkable way that is not so much the case in wetter or more moderate climate.  Structures, roads, footpaths, machinery, fences, and garbage heaps tend to linger on in an unnatural way, far beyond what their creators anticipated.  I have for the past several years developed a keen interest in remains left behind and eventually becoming a part of the landscape.  The deserts of western North America are wonderful places to study this." 

He completed his series of desert scenes in 2010, using small digital equipment as series of overlapping frames,combined in post-production,creating a seamless panoramic image that really shows it better effect here .  He has been experimenting with this technique for a couple of years and found the possibility of extremely high image quality with the convenience of small format appealing.

"The desert has fascinated me for some time.  It is a place where the climate and environment are quite incompatible with human survival.  Scarcity of water, and extremes of heat and cold are typical…  Yet people have been inhabiting and trying to make a living in deserts since time immemorial. Many come, but few stay on.   The extremes of climate have the ability to preserve traces of past activity in a remarkable way that is not so much the case in wetter or more moderate climate.  Structures, roads, footpaths, machinery, fences, and garbage heaps tend to linger on in an unnatural way, far beyond what their creators anticipated.  I have for the past several years developed a keen interest in remains left behind and eventually becoming a part of the landscape.  The deserts of western North America are wonderful places to study this." 

Stuart has several projects which have been in various exhibitions . Hos work continues to evolve with his current approach.

" The notion of a planet absent of human beings has been of interest for some time, and has been cause for expression in my work.  While many imagine a future where man and nature will return to a state of equilibrium, my current work considers a world where nature is gradually reversing the effects of a brief encounter with humanity."
More of his work can be seen  here