The Void. Art and Perspective. And Ribbons

  Kinney Road Farmscape, showing at Gardenworks Saturday. Won a red ribbon.

  I was lucky at the Washington County Fair Photography Contest, winning a First Place Blue Ribbon for my Chickens Portrait, and a Second Place Ribbon for one of my Kinney Road Farmscapes, above. The judge was kind enough not only to give me a prize but to leave me a note that provoked an interesting discussion with Maria and some of my friends. The judge wrote “beautiful picture. Wide angle distortion of barn adds to interest and composition. However – lack of detail in farm implements creates void in flow. Beautifully printed!” The last was a compliment to Image Loft in Manchester which does a wonderful printing job. The photos are going to the Redux Art and Antique Gallery in Dorset, Vt. for showing and sale after the Gardenworks exhibit this week.
  What was interesting about the judge’s comments was that I go to great lengths to leave farm implements out of my farmscapes. I crawled all over the field in the above photo to get the tractor out of the shot.
  I always go for big sky, loneliness because, to me, it evokes the isolation and struggle of the family farm, and the implements, to me, add clutter and distract from the point of the photo.
  Farmscapes are, to me, emotional photos because I know of the losing struggle of these farmers to survive in a corporate world. Their way of life is perishing right under them. In a few years there may not be enough family farms to fill up a county fair.
  In fact, I might have titled this photo:” Farm Void.” Maria, who was trained as a fine artist (I was trained as a college dropout) says it is quite natural for a County Fair Photography Contest to want to see farm implements – tractors, rakes, hayers, feeders – but I have to say that to me they suggest a facade that masks the drama of the farm, and of photographing the farm.
   I love discussions like this, and I am nothing but grateful to the judge for the ribbon and for his/her comments. Next year, I wonder if I will look for implements to flesh out the farmscape photos. I doubt it. Well, maybe one or two.
 But I get his point too. I think the void works for me here.