I've wanted to start this journal with musings about the planning stage, and how I came to choose the project, and the similarities and differences between today and 1770. But this week wasn't exactly going along with my plans as hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans and the horrific news reports began to pour in by the minute. It was impossible to keep my mind on the task at hand. Instead I busied myself with phone calls, scanning new images from 1838 just purchased on ebay, preparing for an interview for the local newspaper, and watching the gut-wrenching, tearful reports out of New Orleans.
I awoke tonight (at 2 am) to the sound of gusting winds and the slapping noises of the window shade on the headboard. I suppose a little bit of Katrina had finally reached Michigan. I began to lie there thinking about the turn of events in New Orleans back in 1970 when my life path changed towards photography and away from a career in law. I had moved to New Orleans to live, work, and attend school in order to marry a New Orleans girl and study law at Tulane. I worked uptown in her family's antique business and attended Tulane business school (accounting!) in the evening that first summer. I began to learn about the city and slowly became a resident. It was an indelible experience and is a part of who I am today.
So..... I began to wonder what might have shaped Gilpin's life in any similar way. He chose a life within the church, was interested in many areas concerning the arts, and wrote extensively. In my reading about Gilpin (Hussey, Barbier, Templeman, Andrews) I don't recall much about his early days or decisions he might have made. I remember his father was and artist and a soldier and his brother was also artistic. I know he wrote both about gardens, prints and drawings earlier, before he began any of his tours. (As was the custom of the times, cultured, well-educated individuals visited country houses of the nobles and gentry, who would entertain guests with their art collections, antiquities, and gardens.) His first written venture into the area of aesthetics was his book, 'A dialogue upon the gardens of the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Cobham, at Stow in Buckinghamshire, 1749,' which would mark his place amongst other authors of visual culture of the time. It would be his later book 'An essay upon prints; containing remarks upon the principles of picturesque beauty, the different kinds of prints, and the characters of the most noted masters' (whew!) which would establish his true position as an authority in matters concerning art (and landscape pictures.)
Two hundred years passed from Gilpin's first Picturesque Tour and that summer I last lived in New Orleans, but I know both those events shaped each of our lives dramatically.
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The interview for the Flint Journal was exciting (for me at least) and I prepared for the photograph by constructing my latest and best Claude Glass to date. It's quite large and will no doubt provide many hand-cramps as I attempt to recreate the 18th century experience of making pictures in the English and Welsh landscape. I had a bit of fun with the photographer, Jane, as she continued to direct my face, body, hand, and Claude Glass to compose the required photograph.
I awoke tonight (at 2 am) to the sound of gusting winds and the slapping noises of the window shade on the headboard. I suppose a little bit of Katrina had finally reached Michigan. I began to lie there thinking about the turn of events in New Orleans back in 1970 when my life path changed towards photography and away from a career in law. I had moved to New Orleans to live, work, and attend school in order to marry a New Orleans girl and study law at Tulane. I worked uptown in her family's antique business and attended Tulane business school (accounting!) in the evening that first summer. I began to learn about the city and slowly became a resident. It was an indelible experience and is a part of who I am today.
So..... I began to wonder what might have shaped Gilpin's life in any similar way. He chose a life within the church, was interested in many areas concerning the arts, and wrote extensively. In my reading about Gilpin (Hussey, Barbier, Templeman, Andrews) I don't recall much about his early days or decisions he might have made. I remember his father was and artist and a soldier and his brother was also artistic. I know he wrote both about gardens, prints and drawings earlier, before he began any of his tours. (As was the custom of the times, cultured, well-educated individuals visited country houses of the nobles and gentry, who would entertain guests with their art collections, antiquities, and gardens.) His first written venture into the area of aesthetics was his book, 'A dialogue upon the gardens of the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Cobham, at Stow in Buckinghamshire, 1749,' which would mark his place amongst other authors of visual culture of the time. It would be his later book 'An essay upon prints; containing remarks upon the principles of picturesque beauty, the different kinds of prints, and the characters of the most noted masters' (whew!) which would establish his true position as an authority in matters concerning art (and landscape pictures.)
Two hundred years passed from Gilpin's first Picturesque Tour and that summer I last lived in New Orleans, but I know both those events shaped each of our lives dramatically.
__________________________________________________
The interview for the Flint Journal was exciting (for me at least) and I prepared for the photograph by constructing my latest and best Claude Glass to date. It's quite large and will no doubt provide many hand-cramps as I attempt to recreate the 18th century experience of making pictures in the English and Welsh landscape. I had a bit of fun with the photographer, Jane, as she continued to direct my face, body, hand, and Claude Glass to compose the required photograph.
