Photograph As Object

Preparing for the "Becoming" exhibition this week, I came across two empty display cases in the hall (Thanks Kevin Haas) Letting my impulsive side take over, I decided to go through my archives of cards and catalogs from the last decade. After a bit of digging, I found a multitude of catalogs and cards from when I was a graduate student at the University of New Mexico. Included among the catalogs  was "Photo Objects", an exhibition and catalog curated by Geoffrey Batchen at the UNM Art Museum.

Display cabinets with cards and catalogs referencing photo as object from UNM, 1999-2002. Includes a catalog by Geoffrey Batchen, for the exhibit, "Photo Objects", from the UNM Art Museum. Background, Gallery 3 and video projects outside Gallery 3.

Detail of the photo above, "The Photograph as object", with  catalog by Geoffrey Batchen.Other cards and catalogs include Myra Greene, Kathleen Robbins, John Mann, Patrick Manning, Chris Colville,  Ian van Coller,  Professor Jim Stone, Professor and Adrienne Salinger.

The "Photograph As Object" is period of history and snap shot in time. It also refers to the dialogue and culture being produced at UNM during this period including specifically by Critical Theorist Geoffrey Batchen, and Photography Professors Thomas Barrow and Patrick Nagatani. The catalogs and cards function on two levels, with one being documents of photographers predominately focused on working with the photograph as a physical media, for example. On the other level, the catalogs and cards are actual objects, which, with the rise of the internet and social media, are a document of a diminishing form of media as objects in their own right.

 Installation in process for the show, "Becoming", Gallery 3, Washington State University.

Unpacking and visualizing the installation of framed prints for "Becoming", in the physical space of the gallery,  has been surprisingly satisfying. As much as I value the broad reach of the internet and social media as a way to disseminate photographs to broad audiences, there is still nothing quite like working with, and experiencing photographs as objects in physical space. 

Origins for the title, Land of the Stratus

The title for Land of the Stratus stems from a conversation I had with the then, eighty year old gentleman by the name of App Applegate. During our conversation, App prosaically described the landscape around as " land of the stratus." Stratus refers to class of clouds characterized by a gray, horizontal layer with a uniform base, found at lower altitudes usually below 8000 feet.

I first met App in 2000, on Orcas island, where he was then in the process of building a 100 foot steel Barkentine sailing ship on the side of a mountain (his third-the first was built in New York). App is  idealistic, and embodies a rugged, back to the earth individualism. Born in Washington state close to the turn of the last century, he is not easy to label. He is not hippy (different generation); a socialist, not a libertarian (he is a subscriber to Grandma, the Cuban Newspaper) and well educated (a retired chemistry professor, Whitman College graduate, and in his 60's, a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana) to be categorized as a western, working class stereotype, such as a redneck or cowboy. App is basically a composite of a free thinking individual.

App, Orcas, 2005, Dennis DeHart

Since first meeting App around 2000, the US experienced terrible acts of terrorism, multiple wars, and a collapse of the world economy, fueled in part, by short sided human greed. On the brighter side (we) the United States elected its first African American president, the Human Genome was mapped, and the World Cup was hosted in South Africa.

Soon after meeting App, I married my wife Jesica, who first introduced me to him. Jesica also introduced her mother, Rivkah, to App in the mid 90's, and they have been partners since. Jesica and I had two sons, moved across the country for various educational and teaching positions including in New Mexico, Arizona, Indiana, New York, and Orcas island. From 1997-99, we were fortunate to live full time on the island where spent two years building a house, making art, playing, organizing a school, and being a family.

Land of the Stratus conceptually began that day first day I met App. The photographs for the project have taken on many forms, ideas, processes, tools, conversations, experiments, failures, and learning. Orcas Island has served as my muse and home, both real and imagined. I want to thank App, who is now in his 90's, for his inspiration. I also want thank all those who have supported me with this project including, most importantly, my family.

-Dennis DeHart, 2012