1) #2 Graphite on Arches 156# Hot-Press Watercolor Paper
5'x7' (60"x 84")
2013
2) ink on arches 300# Arches Hot-press Watercolor Paper
4" x 4" [image]
2013
This was exhibited during the fall of 2013 at the Vogt Gallery [Canisius College, Buffalo]. The text below was included at the exhibition.
+ + +
What is "Latourell & Fall"?
This project is a revision of the my ongoing "Dreamhouses" series. The title "Latourell & Fall" refers to a geographic location. It is the specific rural intersection where the source images for both drawings originated. One drawing replicates a digital snapshot from the photo-sharing site Flickr, an image found using the search term “dream house.” The other drawing replicates a screenshot taken from the Google Street View of the same site. The location for the street view was determined using the geographic coordinates that were displayed alongside the Flickr image.
The Process:
Since 2009, I have been building an archive of amateur digital photographs found on the internet using the search term dreamhouse. These images and their associated title (or tag) create a fascinating semantic formation where a decisive moment (one that passed with the closing of a camera’s shutter) is juxtaposed against a “dream,” meaning aspiration, a condition that has not yet existed but may. To say it another way, “This photo I made in the past shows a yet-unrealized future.”
Recently, I have begun limiting my searches to images that are geotagged. “Geotagging” is the processing of adding geographic location data to digital images and other file types. This data is stored with the image and can be read or displayed in most image-viewing software and platforms. Since many digital cameras (and most camera-phones) are now equipped with this capability and will geotag files automatically, an increasing number of digital snapshots visible on the internet now indicate exactly where the photographer was when he or she took the picture. Websites make the display of this data optional. Flickr and Instagram have this set as a default, while Facebook and Twitter users must activate this feature manually.
My archive has now evolved into an archive of pairs. Using the geolocation data associated with these “dreamhouse” snapshots, I navigate Google Earth and Google Maps’ “Street View” to view the location where the photographer made the original photograph, and then take a screenshot of the “Street View” approximating the original vantage point.
For the two drawings in this exhibition, I chose the first complete pair of images I found.