The Sky Project
This sequence of images deals with the subtle nuances that are happening around us all the time, but most dramatically during periods of transition, such as sunrise and sunset. To notice these shifts requires us to be still – to look, to be silent, and to be beyond ourselves. To be still and silent can be a difficult thing, but if it is possible, there are rich rewards.
Over the course of two hours at sunset, I photographed the shifting light and
shapes that I found as I looked toward the east. I was looking at changing light and shapes, but above all, I was looking at color. This series is about all these things, but mostly it is about color, and how subtle shifts can make all the difference on the flat plain of the photograph.
I have long admired the paintings of Mark Rothko, and have wanted to do a series of photographs that deal with color in a somewhat abstracted way. This series references the colourfield tradition of which Rothko’ s work is a part, but in the photographic medium. Intentionally blurring the landscape from the outset allowed the formal elements to be foregrounded in these images, rather than the focus remaining on the landscape itself.