Memories of Places I Have Known: A Collection of Photographs by Ira Gardner
The camera is a peculiar device. When one puts the camera to their eye they are putting a barrier between themselves and the experience that is happening in front of the lens. When the shutter is fired, the exact moment recorded by the camera is actually hidden from view. The photographer never directly experiences the images they are recording. The photograph becomes a poor surrogate for the lost experiences. The shutterbug who travels often misses out on sensory experiences in favor of the photographic image.
In my photography I try to make images that represent my past experiences. My landscape photographs are never of the actual event that initially brought me there, but rather serves as a representation of a memory of something significant I once felt. I return to the scene to make an image that represents my memory of that place at another time.
Each image in this collection represents a revisiting of place. In the case of the Canadian Rockies, I first visited in 1989 on a climb of Mt. Athabasca and have returned annually ever since. Sometimes months and years can go by before I return to capture a scene, other times it may only be a day. I make my most significant images in the places I travel daily, the places I know best.
Photographs are a perfect representation of a memory. Like memories, they are distorted from reality and subject to personal (emotional) interpretation. They are exaggerations of fact through the use of wide angle or telephoto lenses that flatten three dimensions into two. I have manipulated these photographs through the alteration of tonality and contrast, image sharpness, and composition to reveal something of how I felt about that particular place. Most of my photography is originally captured on film using cameras that are considered vintage in their own right and reproduced on traditional black and white silver paper using both optical and digital techniques.
As you view these photographs I hope you are able to conjure your own memories of a similar place and time that you experienced something significant.
Warmest Regards,
Ira
