Air Variations is a photographic index of light and air in open spaces of the Connecticut River Valley in southeastern Vermont. These images were made primarily at an orchard, at an observatory, and in a sprawling field outside the house where I live. The field, called K’tsi Mskodak in Abanaki, held a stand of red pines before settlers feld them for ship masts. This work has taken on a memorial-like relation to the felled trees.
I photograph mostly in the blue hours before dawn and at dusk when changes of light and air are intense. The materials I photograph are colorless and textureless: a piece of clear glass against white paper. These reflect the quality of light and air around them. By photographing these nearly-characterless materials in the same places at the same times of day over a period of years, I aim to see how many differences can be drawn by daily changes of atmosphere. This is a process of representing the landscape wherein emphasis on space is substituted by emphasis on time.
I winnow the visual world around me down in order to photograph change like a concrete thing, bringing forward subtle details which sit right at the threshold of perception. I intend to prompt a slow state of attention where nearly-imperceptible details come forward. These images show how a place can be represented sheerly by its most ephemeral characteristics, and how, with regard to the materials photographed, one thing can be many things.
