The 12x12"
Meadow Photographs
A collection of 12x12" inkjet print versions of images
from my ongoing project:
Introduction
I refer to these 12x12" square photographs with tonal mattes surrounding the image as "versions" because their original format were horizontal rectangles, and there were no mattes around the images. I thought, "landscapes should be long, horizontal images . . . But (as I have written many times before) I take great pleasure in transforming long images into square images, as in the two early Studies projects of 1994-2000. In the 1980's I found the square the obvious choice for my Thing-Centered Photographs because the center of a square is the the Place of praising; the space of honoring; to pay concentrated, intensely focused attention on a thing that has been placed in the center of a square, one must see with the Eye of the Heart, and indeed the center of a square is the Heart of That picture-space.
Often when I make square images out of longer formatted images, I crop the left and right sides of the image off and present its center space. The peripheral spaces in my rectangular photographs are often not essential to the initial intent or meaning of the image. I tend to place the most important aspects of my seeing in the center of my camera's picture frame.
When I first started making the 12x12" Book Collections of my most favorite photographs from my blog projects, I thought I would not be able to include many Meadow Photographs because I thought "landscape images make no sense in a square format." (See my Introduction to the first 12x12" Studies Book.) But I was mistakenly just too much in my head about this issue. I invite you to visit my project The Meadow and my thematic link Landscape Photographs & Projects and compare the blog images to these square 12x12" versions.
In addition to the nine 12x12" Book Collections of my inkjet printed favorite images, there are the 12x12" Thematic PROJECTS which explore specific kinds of subject matters, concepts, etc. such as Still Life, Circles, The Early Studies Photographs (1994-2000), The Persephone and Steve Lacy Photographs, The Meadow Photographs, and others. It occurred to me recently, after completing the Ninth Book of collected 12x12" inkjet printed photographs, all of which are rather arbitrarily selected image favorites from my many blog photography projects, that it might be a good idea to focus in on a few other recurring themes within the 500 + images within the nine collections. Because many people have told my that they love the Meadow images in particular, it seemed like an obvious way to continue the 12x12" Thematic PROJECTS.
(Note I have created a blog page that collects images according to themes. Please visit Collections of Theme-Related Photographs and Projects.)
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When my wife and I were looking for a place to move in 2008 (after quickly selling our house in Milwaukee) it was the Meadow behind the house that opened my heart and insisted that this must be where we live! The house has a back deck which is ten or twelve feet above our back yard and the Meadow that interfaces with our back property line. Most of my Meadow Photographs were made from the deck or the picture window which looks out over our back yard to the meadow, its two ponds, and the tapering woods that provides a background for the Meadow. I love watching (and photographing) the dramatic light, color, and atmospheric changes that occur in and over the meadow throughout the day as the sun rises and sets. The two ponds determine the south and north orientations of the meadow and I have divided this collection of meadow images accordingly. And I have created a third collection, consisting of Symmetrical Meadow photographs. (Note: visit my blog project: The Symmetrical Photographs which includes information on how I construct the symmetrical images.)
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I want to remind you that all the images published in my blog versions of the 12x12" Books and PROJECTS exist as 12x12" inkjet prints of impressive technical quality. The prints constitute a physical archive of my creative process, and the blog projects constitute an online-digital archive of my creative process, including texts I have written for each project.
The images published on my blog, in their default presentation mode (against a white background), can seem--in their initial appearance on your computer screen (particularly if you are viewing the images on a desktop or laptop computer--will look a bit unsharp, and at times a bit tonally flat. This is due to technical issues related to image compression, among other things. ~ It is however possible for you to see the blog images with excellent resolution and luminous tonalities in an alternate viewing mode. I highly recommend that you try clicking twice on each of the images in my blog projects. Once you have clicked on the image (once, and then once again), you hopefully will see the image against a dark background, and the image will be vastly improved compared to the default viewing mode. And once you have clicked on the image you can also zoom in--or zoom out--to make the image larger or smaller, and you can adjust the screen brightness as desirable. (To learn more about the technical issues involved in viewing my images on a desktop or laptop computer, read my following blog link: How to Best View My Online Blog Project Images).
The Photographs
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The North Meadow
Image #4 12x12" Meadow Project, N Meadow and pond - two layers of morning fog
Image #9 12x12" Meadow Project, S Meadow with pink clouds illuminated by the setting sun
Image #12 12x12" Meadow Project, N Meadow, & pond, Fall, birds flying over in V formation
Image #13 12x12" Meadow Project, N Meadow, pond, yellow flowers, dark sky & storm in the background
Image #14 12x12" Meadow Project, Snow dusted N Meadow and Woods
Image #15 12x12" Meadow Project, Early Fall morning; the fog is being illuminated by the rising sun
Image #16 12x12" Meadow Project, Rainbow over N Meadow and pond
The South Meadow
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Image #18 12x12" Meadow Project, South Meadow, early Spring morning light after a storm
Image #19 12x12" Meadow Project, South Meadow and peach colored light with long cloud forms
Image #20 12x12" Meadow Project, South Meadow pond & early morning fog
This image is part of a project entitled "Creation-Dissolution of a World"
Image #21 12x12" Meadow Project, South Meadow, fog, pond in foreground
Image #22 12x12" Meadow Project, A neighbor's back yard, South Meadow, early morning fog
Image #23 12x12" Meadow Project, another morning and a different view of the same backyard (above)
Image #25 12x12" Meadow Project, South Meadow, Pink and Yellow Clouds at Sunset
Image #27 12x12" Meadow Project, South Meadow, a burst of light through the stormy clouds at sunset
Symmetrical Meadow Photographs
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Image #28 12x12" Meadow Project, Symmetrical Meadow Photograph
Image #29 12x12" Meadow Project, Symmetrical Meadow Photograph
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The one "straight" photograph and two symmetrical images below are from one of the most
interesting projects I have ever had the mysterious pleasure of facilitating into existence.
I invite you to visit my blog project: Creation-Dissolution of a World
(Same as Image #20, above) 12x12" Meadow Project, South Meadow pond & early morning fog)
(a "Straight" photograph from the project "Creation-Dissolution of a World")
Image #30 12x12" Meadow Project, Symmetrical Meadow Photograph, Creation-Dissolution project
(North Pond, Leafless Solitary Tree, early morning mist)