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about the pigeon project

This project is about the people of the Pigeon and Pierre Part area of Louisiana (as well as some of the immediately surrounding area). It is about their connection to the land and how that connection helps shape who they are. It is about the spiritual nature of that relationship. It is about the hard work and struggle to live with and off the land at the edge of the Atchafalaya Basin. It is remount, wild, unforgiving and spectacularly beautiful part of the United States. They live in it, with it. It is a record of those people.

"come on now"

statement about the work

My photographic process has always been about documenting people and place to create records of the ordinary - and, through that process, finding poetry within the mundane. Creating large-scale panoramic photographs allows me to show simultaneously details and relationships at multiple spacial and perceptual levels—for example, both the self-conscious way a young woman holds her hand by her side as she allows someone to photograph her, as well as her place in the sea of people around her engaged in a similar task. It allows me to show a sweeping view of the cityscape from a distance, while simultaneously revealing the fine details of the scales of a fish that a boy proudly displays for the camera.

The photographs are on average around 85 inches long (there is also a 44 inch long version). They are ultrachrome inkjet prints, printed on a Epson 9800. Generally I assemble 6 to 8 separate images in PhotoShop to create almost a 360 view.