1979-1981
IDAHO
Working on the Rephotographic Survey Project taught me a lot about making landscape photographs, and I also became very familiar with Polaroid's Type 55 positive/negative film made for use in view cameras. The film produced an instant print and 4x5-inch negative that could be the in developed on site. The film's advantage to the RSP was that we could see the results of choices up ar made with the camera - position, framing, and the ft exposure. Once an image was exposed, developed, and examined, we knew we could leave the site having produced a usable image. The negative could later be enlarged to make high-quality prints. Thanks to Polaroid's donations, we had plenty of film for the project's fieldwork, so after the second year I began to use some of the film to make my own landscape photographs.
The pictures began with a few "alternate views" that I made in reference to the work of original photographers like Timothy O'Sullivan. Later I started using the film to make pictures at home where I lived at the time in Ketchum, Idaho. I loved the instantaneous nature of the Polaroid film process, the way it enabled spontaneity in setting up and framing an image. It seemed to contradict the formal demands of working a large and bulky view camera.
At the same time I gave up making the photographs I had been working on outside of the RSP up to that point, color photographs made from 35 mm film that were formal explorations of ordinary urban scenes. I switched in favor of the black-and-white Polaroid process and found that it could be more personal, and I could include friends, events, and the places I visited. My practice became closer to my life at the time. I saw these photographs as my snapshots, and their departure from the concerns I had about art practice felt very liberating.
2020-21
REVISITING HOME: Ketchum, Idaho
In 2020 I was asked by the Sun Valley Museum of Art (formerly the Sun Valley Center for Art and Humanities and now located in Ketchum Idaho) to make new work as part of the organization’s fifty year celebration. In June 2020 and July 2021 I returned to the Ketchum, Hailey and Sun Valley area to make new photographs loosely based on many I had made when I lived in the area between 1979-1981.
In over forty plus years my former home town had changed in many ways. Houses had been torn down and bigger ones rebuilt, more trees and planted vegetation covered areas where the desert met the mountains. Most clearly, the demographics had begun to shift away from a white monoculture while at the same time the financial requirements of full time residents had been elevated, leaving many to live outside the town where a mixed economy once thrived. The only constant was the beauty of the area.
Both new and old photographs were exhibited together at the Sun Valley Museum in Ketchum in the summer of 2021.
Rephotographic Survey Project, First camp of the season, Bread Load Rock, City of Rocks ID, Rocky Mountain Division 6/29-30/79
Grand Opening of Hailey Rodeo, Hailey ID 7/4/79
Last day of summer, evening of the fall equinox, 9/21/80
View from above my old house, Ketchum ID 7/16/20
Late spring storm: Bald Mountain, early morning May 1980
4th of July fireworks from our bathroom window, Hailey ID 7/4/21
The barn from Dave’s porch: the big snowstorm, December 2, 1980
The house where poet Ezra Pound was born, Hailey ID 7/22/20
Kem Brown in her garden, Gimlet ID 9/6/81
Emily checking her text messages above Hailey ID 7/21/20
An afternoon at Altura Lake, Sawtooth Range ID 8/9/80
Playing with Marble at Alturas Lake, Sawtooth Range ID 7/21/20
Looking through the snow tunnel above Goat Lake, Sawtooth Range ID, 8/9/81
Goat Lake ice cavern, Sawtooth Range ID 8/9/81
Jo Ann showing her bruises , skiing accident, 4/13/81
Checking the hollyhocks outside our kitchen window, Hailey ID 7/17/20
Our camp at Copper Basin ID 6/29/21
Track and colored hills near Copper Basin ID 6/29/21
Roller Skating, just before sunset
Teenagers at the ruins above Hailey ID 7/2/21
Swimming on the Wood River,Hailey ID, 7/79
Hispanic teenagers hanging out above Hailey ID 7/2/21
Abandoned coke ovens at Muldoon ID 1981
The last coke oven at Muldoon ID 7/17/20
David swimming beneath the currents Warm Springs Creek, 1981
Feeling the coolness of the creek below Boulder townsite, Boulder Mtns ID 7/18/20
Walking up Inferno Cone, Craters of the Moon ID 1980
Walking down Inferno Cone, Craters of the Moon ID 7/3/21
Portrait of the artist and his father, Ketchum ID 9/8/81
Two boys with snake, Big Wood River 7/18/20
David sunbathing behind his house: reflections from a tin roof 7/6/80
Touching a fire-blackened tree, Deer Creek 6/28/21
Dave's sunflowers, Ketchum Idaho
"Pedro and Carmen," arbor glyphs east of Bellevue ID 6/27/21
Working around the house, roses in bloom
Poppies on the bike path to Elkhart ID 7/16/20
Contemplating the Boulder Range from a high perch, Boulder City ID June 28, 1980
Contemplating the vie at Copper Basin Idaho 6/30/21
Calling the cat in early morning. July 18, 1980
Remains of a forest fire, Copper Basin ID6/29/21
Caught in the street: digging out from the big snow December 2, 1980
The "Devil's Bedstead" in my side mirror, Trail Creek Road ID 7/20/20
Welcome to a new home, Ketchum ID 1980
Morning coffee on the porch of the Ezra Pound house, Hailey,ID 7/22/20
Last light on the ridge above our house, Hailey ID 6/27/21
Dave Wharton Cutting Wood on his Porch
Self portrait in a dark cave, Craters of the Moon ID 7/3/21
Prize winning canned goods and photographs, Twin Falls Co. Fair Filer ID 9/12/81
