Land of the Stratus

Land of the Stratus is both a real and imagined place. The series conceptualizes place through representational, stylized and constructed photographs. The images were created in the San Juan Islands, USA, between 2005-2010. The photographs bear witness to instances of distress, which are punctuated by moments of the sublime. Diane Edkins, a curator at the Aperture gallery in New York City, describes the panoramic images as "A classical approach to the western landscape and space, which is both dissident and disturbing while functioning aesthetically and provocatively." A self published artist book of Land of the Stratus is currently on exhibit at the Cleveland Art Museum.

I will be doing an artist presentation/talk about Land of the Stratus this coming week at Indiana University, Bloomington and Bellarmine University, Louisville.

Howdy from Buffalo and lens tests

Dennis DeHart, After the October Storm, Buffalo, NY, 2006. (6x7 film)

During the last few weeks I have been going through my 6x7 negatives of Buffalo from the past 3 years. I have managed to find some interesting images and it is has inspired me to make more images of Buffalo with my Mamiya. This weekend I decided to do some technical tests with a Nikon Digital SLR and a borrowed AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm 1:2.8 D lens. You can read a detailed discussion of the lens at Ken Rockwell's website. The bottom line, this lens rocks! While it will set you back a bit, you just can't go wrong with the superior quality. The tests I did this weekend don't actually reflect the kind of work I have been editing/shooting, but non the less is was interesting to do and gave me an excuse to go tromping around Buffalo.

Dennis DeHart, lens test/digital, 5 images mocked up together, Buffalo, NY, 2008

Living and teaching in Buffalo, one just cannot escape seeing pictures of urban decay. I have tried my best to avoid it as a subject matter, and yet it is everywhere and can be quite compelling. These images were taken in one of the outlining buildings at the old Buffalo train terminal. The photos were taken on a tripod for about 30 seconds each, with an ISO of 200.

An old post card I found on line. If I am not mistaken, the image in the "o" in Buffalo is of the exterior of the central terminal in its glory days.