A Wonderful Emptiness
A Wonderful Emptiness
SPRING ON THE ILLINOIS PRAIRIE
PHOTOGRAPHS | JOHN WOLF
The prairie is not a land to tell its story easily. —Mary Taylor Young
Introduction
A
lthough I have spent the last fifteen years of my life in the heart of prairie country, I confess to an unfortunate indifference to this landscape. Actually, it’s worse than that. After growing up in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, attending college in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and spending much of my adult life on the Atlantic shore, life on the prairie, at least visually, has been disappointing. I have grown to share cartographer Charles Preuss’ view of the prairie as a book with blank pages. This year’s SoFoBoMo event seemed an ideal opportunity to change that perception, to look deeper and try to open myself to what Georgia O’Keefe called the prairie’s “wonderful emptiness.” SoFoBoMo (Solo Photo Book Month) is an informal annual initiative in which photographers must shoot and produce an online book of at least thirty-five photographs within any contiguous thirty-one day period between May 1 and June 30. SoFoBoMo’s schedule really does not allow an accurate depiction of the Illinois prairie. After all, this is tallgrass country. By late July, the bluestem and switchgrass soar to eight or ten feet, in elegant oceans of undulating blonde. The prairie in early May, when I shot, is another planet. Subtract the endless blue of sky and what remains is a mostly colorless world of gray matted grass and vast stubbled fields. Just west of Chicago seas of black dirt roll gently toward infinity, soon to become
a yellow-green continuium of soybeans and corn. Then there are the frequent, soggy savannas and the occasional charred moonscape of controlled burning. These are not Kodak moments. It is not an easy place to photograph. I had planned to shoot the project in color. But as creative projects often do, this one took its own direction. In the end, black and white, with some light toning, just seemed truer to my perception of the early Spring prairie as a reductionist world of line, form, texture, and space. This stark beauty turned out to suit me, and my photography, just fine. As shooting progressed, what engaged me most was not so much the prairie itself as the human imprint on the prairie. I have tried to represent both. After three weeks of mornings and evenings immersed in this elemental landscape, I share with you these pictures, and pass along, with deepened appreciation, these thoughts on the prairie from poet Teresa Palomo Acosta. I walk here and there, seeking open, flat spaces against a sky up high. I have discovered, too late, perhaps that I always preferred the empty more than the full for breathing and forgiving. Thanks for viewing my photographs. John Wolf
Viewing Suggestion These instructions apply to Acrobat 9.0 for Windows. Your version will have the same or similar functions. The book can be displayed as a facing page spread, but I suggest you view the pages individually. To do so, maximize Acrobat Reader, and then on the toolbar click
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Or, right-click the mouse, choose Page Display Preferences and Page Display. Set Page Layout to Single Page Continuous and Zoom to Fit Visible.
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Thank you for viewing this project. I welcome your comments at [email protected]. My photography web site can be found at www.johnwolfphoto.com. I have a blog of random day-to-day work at http://walkabout.blogtog.com. To learn more about SoFoBoMo, visit www.sofobomo.org.
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SPRING ON THE ILLINOIS PRAIRIE
PHOTOGRAPHS | JOHN WOLF
The prairie is not a land to tell its story easily. —Mary Taylor Young
Introduction
A
lthough I have spent the last fifteen years of my life in the heart of prairie country, I confess to an unfortunate indifference to this landscape. Actually, it’s worse than that. After growing up in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, attending college in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and spending much of my adult life on the Atlantic shore, life on the prairie, at least visually, has been disappointing. I have grown to share cartographer Charles Preuss’ view of the prairie as a book with blank pages. This year’s SoFoBoMo event seemed an ideal opportunity to change that perception, to look deeper and try to open myself to what Georgia O’Keefe called the prairie’s “wonderful emptiness.” SoFoBoMo (Solo Photo Book Month) is an informal annual initiative in which photographers must shoot and produce an online book of at least thirty-five photographs within any contiguous thirty-one day period between May 1 and June 30. SoFoBoMo’s schedule really does not allow an accurate depiction of the Illinois prairie. After all, this is tallgrass country. By late July, the bluestem and switchgrass soar to eight or ten feet, in elegant oceans of undulating blonde. The prairie in early May, when I shot, is another planet. Subtract the endless blue of sky and what remains is a mostly colorless world of gray matted grass and vast stubbled fields. Just west of Chicago seas of black dirt roll gently toward infinity, soon to become
a yellow-green continuium of soybeans and corn. Then there are the frequent, soggy savannas and the occasional charred moonscape of controlled burning. These are not Kodak moments. It is not an easy place to photograph. I had planned to shoot the project in color. But as creative projects often do, this one took its own direction. In the end, black and white, with some light toning, just seemed truer to my perception of the early Spring prairie as a reductionist world of line, form, texture, and space. This stark beauty turned out to suit me, and my photography, just fine. As shooting progressed, what engaged me most was not so much the prairie itself as the human imprint on the prairie. I have tried to represent both. After three weeks of mornings and evenings immersed in this elemental landscape, I share with you these pictures, and pass along, with deepened appreciation, these thoughts on the prairie from poet Teresa Palomo Acosta. I walk here and there, seeking open, flat spaces against a sky up high. I have discovered, too late, perhaps that I always preferred the empty more than the full for breathing and forgiving. Thanks for viewing my photographs. John Wolf
Viewing Suggestion These instructions apply to Acrobat 9.0 for Windows. Your version will have the same or similar functions. The book can be displayed as a facing page spread, but I suggest you view the pages individually. To do so, maximize Acrobat Reader, and then on the toolbar click
.
Or, right-click the mouse, choose Page Display Preferences and Page Display. Set Page Layout to Single Page Continuous and Zoom to Fit Visible.
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Thank you for viewing this project. I welcome your comments at [email protected]. My photography web site can be found at www.johnwolfphoto.com. I have a blog of random day-to-day work at http://walkabout.blogtog.com. To learn more about SoFoBoMo, visit www.sofobomo.org.
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