A bit further on the road is a community called Crow Head, like many communities is is quite striking to see how people live in this landscape. I am really quite mazed at the locations for many of the houses, they must have been very laborious to build, to just get the materials on site.
I will return to do some work on some of the hiking trails, specifically the one around Long Point Lighthouse. It somewhat reminds me of the hike around Signal Hill, but with a less urban surrounding. I also imagine an awesome view of the cliff faces, I’ll have to be sure to go in the morning the the light is full on this side of the cliff face.
The cove on the south side of Crow Head.
Walker on the Lighthouse Trail.
The Long Point Lighthouse
The cove on the south side of Crow Head from the other side.
Today I was reacquainted with a long lost love, the fish plant. There is something about these places that simply inspired so many things for me. They stand in the middle of communities and yet represent hard labour in cold dank spaces with cement floors. And they do seem to carry a certain fishy odour so no one wants to live next to them.
Notre Dame Fisheries Plant
To me, they seem oddly attractive; alluring even. I have always been attracted to landscapes marked by industry and commerce. The sheets of sheet metal, corrugated or not become silky surfaces where one can tough the effects of time.
These landscapes speak of how we see the land and how we use it as we see fit. This is all changing now, there is a new appreciating for the impact of human life on the planet.
Bent (XXIII)
This is my second day here. I was pretty productive, getting to find those special spots to explore and meeting a few local folk. One hello even invited me into his home to show me some of his special objects. The living room was full of classic books and curious objects from around the world. I am certain I will visit again.
Ladder, wood that appears to be for mounting things but no evidence of what might have been mounted on these blocks.
I also recorded some sound at the government wharf, today was not a big day for the fishermen, those ships stayed in port. But a Coast Guard cutter and many pleasure craft were out and about on this remarkably beautiful day.
These didn’t make it to the final cut either; but they are images that I quite like and will eventually use in another project sometime. Why wouldn’t an image I like not make the cut? Usually because something formal in the image makes it contrast with others, or loads a sequence with a type of emotional impact that could be considered manipulative in the context of the work I am making here.
The extreme symmetry making the eye tunnel into bits and pieces of boats, continually chopped up by the architectural object in the foreground. As much as the photograph pleases a certain appetite for symmetry; it presents it with a boldness and deliberateness that contrasts with the kind of rational distance I want to maintain in order to remain true to the “new topographic” aesthetic.
Trout River NL, 2009
Making engaging photographs in the absence of light is a favourite challenge of many photographers. The ability to play with exposure and slowly, gently; light becoming a thick fluid that you allow to come into contact with the light sensitive surface. It is seductive, but ultimately quite dramatic in a very superficial way. I could not see how these could be at home with the body of work that has become “Plant”.
