City Limits (click for statement)
I spent my childhood in the woods, and I've spent my adulthood in Boston. I haven't decided where I feel more at home. The images in this body of work were all made within the city limits of Boston. They are images of trees, and vines, and places where little grows on its own. They are illustrations of the claustrophobic conditions of tiny plots of dirt, and portraits of protected refuges of nature, as well as the way those two meet. I hope to show these sometimes ignored, often unappreciated places and things as important, not only to the people who enjoy and nurture them, but in and of themselves. In my photographs I am not just making a picture of a place, I am trying to give voice to a silent personality. To emphasize not the context of a plant, but the structure, and the will, of a creature; a creature which often thrives in spite of its surroundings. To give a personality to something which in our urban environment is often considered to be an object. I attempt to give a personification to nature, through the body of a tree, or the confinement of a sky, even in environments which are so controlled as to be almost sterile. While I have come to grips with the fact that most of my images are landscapes, I approach my subjects from the point of view of a portrait photographer, and hope to pass on that impression to the viewer. The images are all created using an antique wooden view camera, and the prints are all 4x5 contact prints (meaning that the paper and negative are in direct contact during the printing process). The nature of the contact print, as opposed to an enlargement, is that the closer you get, the more you see. This creates a more intimate viewing experience for the individual willing to get up close and personal, to share the space, both physically and metaphorically, of both the photograph and its subject. Tricia Neumyer, 2000