Farm and Silos circa 1982

Back in the early 1980s my goal as a photographer was to become Ansel Adams or Paul Strand. To pursue this goal I purchased a 4x5 View Camera. I was so ignorant of the types of equipment that was available that I ended up acquiring a 20 inch monorail studio camera from Calumet instead of a field camera. That thing was, and still is, a monster. I would take it backpacking to the mountains, the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge, the farm and downtown.

The days I preferred to shoot on were days that were overcast or had a storm front moving through. They would give me skies filled with clouds. Paul Strand once quipped that he disliked “bald headed days”, days in which the sun shone bright and clear. You have to remember that back then there was no Photoshop; what you shot was what you got. While he may not have been the only photographer working with multiple images Jerry Uelsmann was and still is the master of combining several disparate ideas into a unique and seamless whole. If you’ve never seen his work go to: http://www.uelsmann.net/ . However I had neither the talent nor desire to work in that genre at this point in my life. For me it had to be “the decisive moment” as Henri Cartier-Bresson had described the moment a photographer pushed the shutter. It still is whether you’re working on a portrait, being a photojournalist or working with a landscape.

I would drive around in my green Pinto and when I saw that moment I would pull over, pop open the hatchback and set up. Fortunately most of the time I was out on country roads so traffic wasn’t an issue but I would carry an A Frame sign that read “Photographer at work. I drive slow and stop a lot. Just pass me.” On the day that Farm and Silos was shot I was driving around watching an approaching summer storm coming in. When I saw the farm I knew I had my shot if I could set up and capture it before it started to pour.

There were two sets of “ideas” that attracted me to this scene. First was the disparity between the pastoral image of the farmhouse with the silos behind it. The contrast of the clapboard farmhouse, an iconic image ingrained in the mythology of the American story, against the modern and imposing metal silos looming behind it. Add to this tension the storm clouds building overhead. The second concept was the juxtaposition or chiaroscuro in the house itself. I metered for the asphalt shingles on the roof as being at Zone III or textured black and the white clapboard on the house as being a Zone VII, white with texture. The light is coming from behind me and to my right (you can look at the shadow on the house and see how it is falling). I cannot remember what the sky was metered for but when printed it did require some burning in to bring it out. I do know that a split Neutral Density Filter would have helped but I did not use one at that time. If I used any filtration at all it would probably have been a Yellow Filter to enhance the sky. I would have shot Kodak 400 ASA 4x5 sheet film, developed in a metol – sodium sulfite solution and used selenium toner to intensify the negative. This image would have been printed on a grade 3 Paper; at that time Agfa and Brilliant made some wonderful papers.

This image ad others will be included in a coffee table book I’m self publishing this spring. Fine art prints, matted and framed are available as well.