I've talked here and there in this blog about my on-going Fontenelle project. The project is a series of black-and-white photographs depicting Fontenelle Forest, a private nature reserve located in Bellevue, Nebraska that was founded in 1913. It's a documentation of a walk in the woods - landscapes and intricate details, changing seasons, and the process of getting to truly know a place.
Twenty images from Fontenelle will be on display at Fontenelle Forest's Nature Center beginning on Saturday, April 11th. The Nature Center is located at 1111 Bellevue Blvd North.
Visit fontenelleforest.org for more information.
First, a little back story to how all of this came to be...
I wandered onto Fontenelle Forest's flood plain on a chilly Saturday morning in early October, 2012 without much of a plan other than to get out of the house for a little while. The photographs and landscape immediately resonated with me and I began the task of exploring every single mile of trail in the reserve. By the next summer, the foundation of the project was firmly in place.
In a random twist of fate, I needed some volunteer hours for a class I was taking and received an email from Fontenelle Forest to its members looking for volunteers in July of 2013. Volunteering lead to an internship and a permanent communications position followed. I've now worked at the forest for over a year.
The result is a series of photographs that has become very personal to me in a lot of ways.
As you may notice, the subject matter is very different from everything I've done to this point. This has been both exhilarating and terrifying for me. On one hand, I feel it's very important to push ones' self artistically rather than continue to just stagnate and keep reproducing the same thing for years. On the other, I feel as if I've established a very identifiable aesthetic that has grown with time, and that aesthetic does not necessarily lend itself to a large series of natural subjects. In the end, I've sided with growth and feel as if the challenge and experience of making Fontenelle has changed both me and my work for the better.
Planning and creating the exhibition has been very rewarding as well. I've been digitally printing black and white for the first time and really love the results. Everything has been done using archival materials, from the pigment inks and Hahnemuhle FineArt Baryta paper to the mat board and mounting materials. All photographs will be available in two sizes: 12x15" matted to 16x20" and 8x10" matted to 11x14" (smaller prints on Ilford paper). Pricing will be determined soon.
I'm excited to share this creation with the world and hope everyone gets a chance to see the exhibition. We'll have a small artist's reception in the coming week as well.