Sean Duggan Blog

Autumn Cornfield

Autumn Cornfield, western Massachusetts  /  October 7, 2005

The Ladder into the Lake

The Ladder into the Lake, Kressbronn, Germany / August 2005
(click in the image for a larger version)

Mansion and Weeds

Mansion and Weeds, Thomaston, Maine
(click in the image for a larger version)

Another image from my recent (late September) wanderings in New England. The mansion is Montpelier, the home of revolutionary war general (and later, the first Secretary of War) Henry Knox. Although there were other, more "stately" views of the house, I preferred the ambiguity of looking up at it through the weeds.

Mariachi with Violin

Mariachi with Violin, Santa Fe, New Mexico / late July, 2005
[Holga]

Musical Elephant

Musical Elephant, Santa Fe, New Mexico / late July, 2005
[Holga]

German Bison

Bison #1 /September, 2005
[Holga]

Now that I have been off the travel circuit for a few days, I am finally finding a spare moment here and there to get to the prodigious pile of Holga and pinhole negatives that I have accumulated over the past 4 months in Peru, Santa Fe, Germany and New England. I hope to be able to devote at least 2 or 3 posts per week to these images.

Ironically, this photograph of an animal most commonly associated with the American West, was taken in the former East Germany. The location was a modest (some might be tempted to use the word 'mediocre') theme park that had an Old West area. The bison (there were four of them) were featured in the Wild West Show and their part was to gallop into the arena, roll around the in the dust and then gallop back out again.

To really appreciate this scenario, you have to imagine Germans dressed up as cowboys and indians and, of course, speaking German to each other. Although that might not seem odd to a German, especially those who grew up with the western stories of their native Karl May (who, interestingly enough, never even set foot in America until four years before his death and long after he penned his Western stories), to me it does have a decided and delicious surreal quality to it.

Sequence

Iraq War Sequence  (click in the image for a larger version)
Click here for an even larger version
(158k...some horizontal scrolling may be required)
To see the individual images follow these links: Photo 1;  Photo 2; Photo 3

Thoughts on Image Sequence

In the past several days I have been thinking about sequencing, or the order in which images appear. This has long been a powerful tool that photographers have used in exhibitions, books, and other presentations of their work. Of all the still visual arts (i.e., pieces that do not contain motion, such as films or videos), photography is perhaps the best suited for the use of sequencing to deliver a certain idea or message, or reinforce an underlying conceptual theme. This is not to say, of course, that collections of paintings, sculpture or other visual art cannot benefit from creative sequencing, but I think that with photography it is more natural and expected.

Sequencing has long been a part of the photographic representation of the world. A few well known examples are the early motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge, the photo essays that were pioneered by Life magazine in the 1930s, and the short visual narratives of Duane Michaels.

In addition to conscious before-the-fact sequencing, that is, creating photographs that you know will be presented in a certain order (the images of Duane Michaels are a good example of this), there is also conscious after-the-fact sequencing, or arranging images in a specific order even though they were not necessarily photographed with that in mind. This latter method is most commonly used when photographers or curators arrange images for a presentation or an exhibition. On a more everyday level, we have all done this by arranging our images for a slide show, be it the old fashioned kind with actual slides, or the more modern digital equivalent using photo viewing software.

A third type of sequencing activity would be unconscious arrangements, where a sequence is created, either in the camera or after the fact, with no conscious attempt at creating a specific order. The fact that there is a sequence is only realized after the photos have been grouped together.  Of course, many would say that a true unconscious ordering of images, especially when working with finished images after they have been photographed, is impossible.

Another form of sequencing can be the juxtaposition of two or three images together in the form of a diptych or triptych. Images can visually "comment" on each other, or expand upon the themes and ideas that are presented in the companion images (and, when seen together, the sequence from today's post works well as a triptych).

The reason I bring all this up is that I recently posted a series of three images to this site that ended up being a sequence, even though that was not my original intention. And although I was not planning a sequence when I posted the first image, I quickly saw the relation between it and what would become the second image.

The first image in the unintended, but now obvious, sequence is the Memory of a Soldier that was taken on my recent road trip through New England. It shows a window memorial to one of the local policemen in a small Vermont town who had recently been killed in Iraq. All the traditional trappings are in place, including the American flag and the yellow ribbons. It was a classic American scene that could have been in any small town in in the country.

A few days later I found my self in an area of upstate New York between the Hudson River valley and the Massachusetts border and I photographed a billboard that listed The Cost of the War in Iraq. I was immediately struck by the differences in these two small town responses to the war. I photographed this image the day after I had posted the Vermont memorial photo. Later, when viewing the images from that day, I realized the strong connection between the two and knew that it would naturally fit as the image following the Vermont scene.

Still in the upstate New York area, and not far from where the billboard was photographed, I came upon a roadside cemetery outside the town of Ghent. When I made the images there, I had no conscious association with the two Iraq war-themed photos. A few days after posting the billboard image, I decided to post one from the cemetery as the next photo on the blog. The main reason for this decision was that those images were the most recent that I had taken and the ones I was most interested in at the time. It was only after I had selected it for posting that I saw the connection to the first two.

The connection, of course, is the idea of death that runs through the first two images (a memorial to a fallen soldier, and a tally of soldiers and civilians killed in the war), and that is even more obvious in an image of a cemetery. The element of the road and the road sign warning of an approaching curve also underscored the concept that we have no clear idea of what the road is like around the bend, either in Iraq or life in general. 

So these three images became a sequence, even though they were not photographed with that intention (another image of a ghostly, motion-blurred car speeding by the grave stones was posted after the first cemetery image, but after seeing all four grouped together, it did not seem to fit as well). The first photo of the soldier's memorial was posted with no thought of continuing with additional images in the same vein. It was only with the second image of the billboard that a direct association was made. And the third image of the cemetery fit into the sequence more accidentally, though the conscious mind was at work once the connection was seen. I hasten to add that I do not necessarily consider the above triptych or sequence to be a "finished" work. It came about in an unplanned and largely serendipitous manner, but once I saw what was happening it set off a little thought ricochet in my mind on the subject of image sequence and series.

Sequencing can be an intriguing creative tool for showing images. Through a specific arrangement of photos, questions can be asked and answers suggested (or not), ideas can be presented and then visually commented upon, or they can be used in support of a narrative. The image sequence becomes a journey and the perceptions of a viewer can be guided along a certain path to arrive at a clear or intentionally ambiguous conclusion.

Passing Through...

Passing Through, Ghent, New York

Roadside Cemetery

Roadside Cemetery, Ghent, New York
(click in the image for a larger version)

The Cost

Small Town Billboard, Chatham, New York
(click in the image for a larger version)

This is a companion piece to the previous image of a small town Main Street window memorial to a fallen soldier in Iraq. This image was also taken during my journey through some of the smaller towns in the Northeast. Like Wilmington, Vermont,  where the previous photo was taken, Chatham is also a small town in a predominantly rural area. It is in upstate New York, not far from the Massachusetts border, and not far from Wilmington, Vermont.