Lately, I’ve been thinking about some of the early influences that led me to landscape photography. Having spent my childhood obsessed with drawing, not photography, I remember being enamored with the work of Andrew Wyeth. His realist paintings of the coast of Maine eventually sparked my desire to photograph there in the mid-nineties. I’m certain that his ability to capture a mood with even the most mundane subjects helped shape my approach to photography, but what strikes me most as I look back at his life is that his work centered around only a few square miles in the two places he spent most of his 91 years; Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and Cushing, Maine.
Reading about Wyeth I’m reminded that many great artist’s work centers around the people they know and the small piece of the world they call home. The paths and places Wyeth roamed had something indefinable that he was driven to share. The etched faces of the neighbors who posed for him reflected their environment. Their stories fascinated him. He was constantly striving to get at the essence of a subject and “grab that thing” as he would say. He described “that thing” as the unspoken, elusive quality of a subject that gave a painting power and meaning. That spark of recognition is evident in his work, and was possible because of his patience and deep understanding of the world he lived in.
We look to the masters of any medium to not only be awed by their work, but to also learn from their example. To Wyeth’s example, as I think about the places I am drawn to again and again, I feel myself returning unflinchingly toward my own few square miles as I, too, try to “grab that thing”.
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