The Parks ProjectStephen Johnson's historic photography of the national parks With a New Eye represents a superb realization of digital landscape photography at its highest resolution, executed with extraordinary beauty. This pioneering ten year all digital photographic project is nearing completion with production underway on a touring fine-art exhibition, a photographic portfolio, a series of posters, a DVD and a large-format photographic book. Johnson has traveled 75,000 miles, made over 2500 132mb (or larger) photographs from over 52 parks and has been featured in 40 journals in the US, Europe and Mexico since 1994. Background With a New Eye is the groundbreaking digital photographic project by photographer Stephen Johnson exploring selected American National Parks from 1994 through 2004. This project will culminate in a photographic portfolio, a touring art exhibition, a poster, an electronic disk (cataloging the work, demonstrating the technology and discussing the National Park ethic and system), and an interpretive photographic book.
The fine-arts exhibition will consist of approximately 100 prints, with technology artifacts (scanning camera, GPS, PowerBook computer) from the project. Prints will be large, beautiful and carrying resolution and detail unparalleled in the history of photography. The exhibit will be designed for major museum installations and carry with it a panoramic walk-in display for 360 ° views, and computer driven interpretive kiosks explaining the project and technology, through text and video highlighting field work, printing workflows and lectures. Prints will primarily be pigment inkjet on cotton paper at virtual contact print size of 20x25 inches to 27x34 (or slightly larger). Wherever possible, daylight spectrum lighting will be used for maximum simulation of real-world lighting conditions.Tour plans call for a major US museum to premier the exhibition, followed by a national tour. A second copy of the exhibition may be constructed for near simultaneous exhibition internationally. These plans are subject to museum schedules and book response which will be published prior to the exhibition or in conjunction with its first opening.
The Multi-Media Display The Electronic Disk- Exhibition Kiosk and DVD/Blu-ray
Between the covers of the book, and within the walls of the fine-arts exhibition, the artwork itself must dominate as the core of the project. However, there is a rich story of the creation of this first-ever digital landscape project. This includes a large body of photographic work in numbers well beyond what the book or exhibit can present, information about the photographs (including innovative cartography), extensive documentary video, press coverage, and field journals, as well as the detailed story of the technology used. This important story is told electronically through the Interactive DVD.
The Documentary Video The one hour video documentary project has arisen out of the ABC News coverage in late1997, combined with a mini-documentary made by Apple Computer with eMotions Studios in spring 1998, and video footage from the field work during project trips. Editing documentary footage has already yielded a rough cut of the 30 minute piece on the 1994 opening Press Conference in Yosemite sponsored by the Ansel Adams Gallery. Continuing conversations with ABC and others have made clear there is an opportunity to expand on the project at completion and produce a major piece for airing on national television. Lectures
Project lecture at the George Eastman House June 2012.
We are fundraising for the public phase of the project. Email for a project prospectus: info@sjphoto.com |
The Photographs Johnson's photographic work of the national parks are among the most remarkable landscape photographs ever made in these lands. They celebrate the real natural beauty of the land rather than the superficial and often repeated scenes always bathed in golden light. There is a straightforward realism running through his images found frequently in our hearts, but rarely by our cameras. In 1997 the Photographer's Gallery declared "His work births a "new realism," a post modern expression beyond the constraints of conventional photographic techniques and styles. Plunging into a rich pastel world rarely attempted in photography, yet uncannily familiar to human experience, he is doing battle with color photographic convention of contrasty, saturated renditions, forcing us to see a world we know, but which photography has largely ignored. His sensitive design and color take us into a remarkable world of sensual visual experience. Contending that the real world is already "self-embellished" he prefers a straightforward attempt at rendering of what he sees, working hard to portray what is before the camera optic. This significant break from film's inherent distortion and recent digital trends of embellishment and enhancement reveals his affection for seeing beauty, compelling form and visual power in the world as he finds it." See Print Qualities Unprecedented Photographic Detail Parks Gallery Selections (HTML5) or (Adobe Flash)
Parks Gallery Selections Black and White
2012 Lecture at the Eastman House Museum Video: Parks Project Art Gallery at Seybold 2001 Parks Project Information |
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