One Old Farm - Extended Project

This project has separate objectives. From a cultural perspective it will include the documentation of an single old farmstead in rural Kane County, Illinois. This is of importance in a historical sense as this property will no doubt be developed in the future, probably in the near future – it is currently owned by a real estate company (Inland Real Estate Corporation, Oak Brook, Illinois), is located at the intersection of two major highways and is, in fact, within the boundaries of the Village of Sugar Grove. It is not currently for sale. So it is an opportunity to document a part of American History that is rapidly disappearing before the onslaught of suburbia. On the artistic level I envision this project as being a study in light, form and texture. This abandoned farmstead contains a house as well as two barns and other outbuildings in various states of decay. There are a wealth of possibilities for shooting form and texture both inside and out – weathered wood, pealing paint, heaps of rubbish and partially fallen down structures, all on a heavily wooded eleven acre plot. This will not be a bunch of rustic decaying barn photographs that are so popular today – in fact it would be impossible to get such typical quaint and romantic scenes at this location because of its situation in the center of a heavily wooded area. The primary inspiration for this project is Wright Morris, a photographer who traveled the country taking photographs of the rural Midwest between the mid-thirties and mid-fifties. He photographed what he saw then as a disappearing America. I have decided to take a slightly different angle, choosing to focus on one site – One Old Farm.

I conceive of this as being an ongoing project, continuing well beyond the class, for perhaps one year, in order to document this property in all seasons. The photographs will all be in black and white, probably a selection of 11×14 and 8×10 window mounted or possibly even framed prints. I believe that black and white will be better for the artistic study of light, form and texture while contributing to an “old time” or nostalgic feeling for something from the past that is rapidly disappearing. The number by the end of the semester will certainly be more that 10. I also plan of publishing these photographs (as well as many I don’t print) to a separate gallery on my web site, Rustic Roads Photography. Photographs will use natural light for the most part, however I may shoot at night using flash or experiment with painting with light to see if such techniques fit into the project. I will shoot digital for the most part but may also use black and white film, which I will develop and scan.

I plan on shooting at least once per week at different times of day and during various weather conditions (sun, overcast, night, rain, fog, etc). Photographs will be selected and edited (at least in rough form) as I go. I will contact the owners of the property to ask for permission, however as they are absentee landlords I doubt that they would ever know that I was there. This will be an ongoing project and the portion completed in class will be (late) Winter and Spring which will set the tone for the remainder of the project.