Roadtrip by Barbara Justice 9/19

So every year about this time my parents go on a roadtrip to Colorado, and I meet them because well it's fun and I love being with them for about four days (no longer). We meet up in Albuquerque then drive north to Durango. They like to hang out in the hotel because it's old and historic so I sling a camera on each shoulder and take off. This time this is what I shot: buildings, bicycles, signage, landscape, vehicles, people, the usual vacation stuff. What I really had in mind was this: duplicating one picture taken by Ansel Adams in Silverton Colorado. I know Adams is talked about so much and you can pretty much buy his posters at any mall, but I love his photographs and I really just wanted to see what he was looking at in person, get his perspective and really just look around and say to myself "so Ansel Adams was here". Finding this spot would be kind of like a treasure hunt and I would know it when I found it. Silverton is a small mining town north of Durango, population 500. We went today (Saturday 9/19) and because the town i so small I pretty much staked the spot out within 30 minutes, thanks to the church steeple I used as my landmark. I took the picture, I studied the forms, and looked around and wondered what he liked about this shot. I wondered where he had his large format set up and if it was a big production, I thought and looked and studied. I snapped a few then moved on. The pic I have posted here is his photo. I plan on developing and printing mine within the coming week.

Ok. I also discovered a gallery that is just photographs called Open Shutter Contemporary Fine Art. www.openshuttergallery.com The current show is photographer Steve McCurry. His most famous photo is of a young Afghani girl who is wearing a red sari type robe with piercing green eyes. This was on the cover of National Geographic in 1985 and is one of the most amazing images ever. His images are all about color and meaning. Notice almost every photo has complementary colors which make them so inviting to look at. This gallery is doing a show in Novemeber called "The Alternative Process" so we will be able to look at the images online hopefully when that opens. One of the most interesting things about this show besides the work, was about the artist. To get these images of people in Afghanistan, he would dress in their native gear and sew rolls of film into the material of what he was wearing. Tourists weren't allowed into the county, because it was rebel controlled. So basically he risked his life to take these photos of the natives during this time, and that is nuts dedication to get the perfect image.

Ok. Done for now.