When I think of black and white landscape photography, the magnificent images of the West captured by Ansel Adams come to mind. While Andover doesn’t have the dramatic features of the West, its woods and ponds are every bit as beautiful in a subtler, more understated way. With these twelve black and white prints, I’ve tried to capture a bit of this quiet beauty that is within a short walk or drive from my home near Andover Center.
I enjoy walking in the woods in and around Andover, where my wife and I brought up our two boys and walked our dog. (Many thanks to the Andover Conservation Commission and AVIS for dozens of miles of well-maintained trails.) These walks provide a welcome escape from the hectic rush of the surrounding area. The New England weather and seasons vary these landscapes with an infinite variety of light and mood. I especially love the sharp contrasts of winter, which are well suited to black and white photography. I try to capture this sense of calm and variety of light and mood in my photographs. I also try to find a pleasing arrangement of elements in my compositions without compromising what is essentially random and natural.
I use mostly black and white film in medium and large format (2 1/4 inch square and 4 by 5 inch negatives). This allows me to take my time, capture detail and concentrate on variations and balance of shades of gray, contrast and composition. I develop and print the negatives using traditional darkroom processes in my basement and other darkrooms in and around Boston. Instead of sitting in front of a computer manipulating digital images, I enjoy this slower, more deliberate, meditative process, working with my hands to make a physical object.
Travel for work and the iPhone revived the interest I had in photography as a child. After a brief fling with digital photography, I fell in love with film and darkroom processes. I began studying photography at evening classes at Northern Essex Community College in Lawrence and Theia Studios in North Andover, starting in 2013. After retiring from a career in software, I continue to take workshops and work as a teaching assistant at the New England School of Photography, struggle in the darkroom, wander the woods in the Andover area and travel under the big skies out West every summer.
Jodi Feil at Theia Studios, Nick Johnson at the New England School of Photography, and Bill LaPete at LaPete Labs in Boston have taught me a great deal about photography and printing. I have shown my work at regional and on-line galleries, including the Griffin Museum of Photography, Camera Commons, The Darkroom Gallery, The Curated Fridge, a photo of the day at Don’t Take Pictures and an honorable mention on L.A. Photo Curator. To view more of my work, go to richvogelphotography.com.
Display Case – Our Clock Towers: Celebrating the Everyday Sounds of Andover
On our first of many walks to the Addison Gallery we collectively heard the sound of the Memorial Bell Tower located at Phillips Academy. The sound of these bells has connected us to our neighborhood and as a community of learners. The children in the Springboard classroom at SHED Children’s Campus refer to it as “Our Clock Tower.” The sound of Our Tower and others in surrounding communities has connected us when we are apart. After the weekend, children often come in with stories about their sightings of clock towers. After a family trip, R came to school eager to share, “I was in Boston and saw a clock tower but it wasn’t like our clock tower.” In the display case, artists used their passion for creating with loose parts to build models of their own personal clock towers. Inspired by the Memorial Bell Tower, children incorporated their version of the many details we have noted on the tower such as writing on the side of the tower, the door, clock with no numbers “just lines”, lots of stairs, base of the tower, crack or lines in the tower, and windows.
A big THANK YOU to Christine at the Addison Gallery who has supported and inspired our research of the Memorial Bell Tower. Through looking at work by Paul Manship, we have enhanced the lens at which we look at our three dimensional world. She has guided our endless questions and scaffolded us in gaining a deeper understanding of what we see and the story of what is happening to help us appreciate the art around us.