Mammy’s Head’n to Texas!

Images from my Incongruity series keep reaping acclaim and exhibitions! A shot from last summer’s road trip to New Orleans garnered an exhibit venue down in Johnson City, Texas. The photograph, Mammy’s Cupboard was shot down in Natchez, MS, and will go on display later this month at the A. Smith Gallery. The national competition, called “Domicile”, was a juried show. I also found out the image will be used on their promo cards, which are to hit the postal mail soon.

© 2009 Terry Ownby

NOLA Road Trip ’09

Road trips have always been a big part of my life. By the time I was five years old (in the late 1950s) I had traveled the famous Route 66 numerous times with my parents (between Missouri, New Mexico, and on out to California). I’ve loved being on the road ever since. So, after more than a month of nothing but writing papers in response to my doctoral content prelim exams and completing an on-line research course, I decided to give myself a solo vacation to New Orleans to visit one of my sons and his family (read grandkids here!).

Pretty much I can’t stand driving on the interstate highways as they’re so blah, generic, or “pedestrian.” Instead, I’ll take backroads whenever the opportunity arises, which it did on this trip. I used the interstate system to get me into Mississippi, just south of Memphis, and then off the beaten path I went! Once I made my way over to Vicksburg, I drove U.S. Highway 61 along Ol’ Man River until I reached NOLA. There’s so much history along that corridor of the Mississippi River Valley, one could spend days photographing and sight-seeing the antebellum plantations and Civil War battlefields.

Photographically speaking, I captured some interesting shots, I think. After having a lunch of gumbo on my first day in New Orleans at my favorite local joint, Liuzza’s, I made my way over to City Park. The Live Oaks there are incredible with their branches touching the ground and suckering off new trees. Other photo ops included another muffler man (the King) and Mammy’s Cupboard (near Natchez, MS) for my Incongruity series; cool looking Cyprus trees in the Jean Laffite Bayou; a new balcony series from the French Quarter; and incredible views of the 275-year old Live Oak “alley” at Oak Alley Plantation.

Oak Alley Plantation, © 2009 Terry Ownby

Mammy’s Cupboard, © 2009 Terry Ownby

Fort Scott, Kansas…Another Road Trip!

The old army fort in eastern Kansas was called Fort Scott and was originally constructed in 1842. There were no walls built around this pioneer army post since three sides consisted of natural, steep bluffs, with the southern side opened to the expanse of the tall grass prairie. This old army post was the last destination for Wilson and I on our short road trip last week through SW Missouri and SE Kansas. Eleven years after its founding, the Army abandoned the fort in 1853 and its buildings became the center of a new frontier town, bearing the old fort’s namesake: Fort Scott, Kansas. This would later become the hometown for renowned African American photographer, Gordon Parks.

This is a great small town photo destination. The main street area, which joins the old fort structure, has great 1800s architecture, which has been nicely restored. Lots of interesting antique stores and boutique shops occupy the storefronts. Also, as with any of my road trips, I found a really cool diner from 1946 that is still in operation, complete with its nifty neon signage…Nu Grille Cafe. My photo compadre enjoyed a really big cheeseburger and I sampled the Frito chili pie, for about five bucks. Cheap but good! After chowing down supper at the greasy spoon, we headed back to UCM, which is maybe a couple of hours drive…I really lose track of time on the road, but it was dark! But lack of light never stops Wilson from creating images! As you can see posted below, he pushes the envelop of image making with any amount of electromagnetic radiation he can find. In this case, minimal ambient light from the dusky sunset and the truck dashlights!

© 2009 Terry Ownby

© 2009 Wilson Hurst

Big Brutus!

My search for incongruities continues. I started photographing odd and large culturally significant objects about five years ago and doubt if I’ll ever grow tired of this quest. Two years ago I went to a technology convention at Pittsburg State University in southeast Kansas. One of my traveling companions, Wilson, had discovered the existence of Big Brutus and had suggested that we photograph it for my series. We weren’t sure where it was located and time at the convention prevented us from tracking it down. However, this past weekend, he and I had the opportunity to travel to Joplin, MO, to drop off our images that had been accepted for inclusion at the George A. Spiva Center for the Arts‘ annual national photo competition.

On our return trip, we decided to drift over the stateline and explore southeast Kansas. As we were heading north, we suddenly spotted a small sign telling passersby that Big Brutus was just 13 miles off the beaten path. Well, with no timeline or agenda, your intrepid wanderers were off on a new adventure! We did indeed find the brute, but only after stumbling onto another magnificant photo op at a local train club having their meeting. They had refurbished train depots, all kinds of trains, including passenger cars and some really cool cabooses. Anyway, on to brutus. Big Brutus is a monster! The world’s second largest electric coal shovel, it towers 16 stories (160 feet) with a boom that is 150 feet long. The bucket on this behemoth has a capacity of 150 tons (enough to fill three railroad cars). Needless to say, Big Brutus is BIG! Additionally, the non-profit organization running the Big Brutus operation had a really BIG fee to go inside the fence for a closer look. Needless to say, we weren’t going to partake in their highway robbery, so we pulled out our BIG lenses and shot from the parking lot!!!

© 2009 Terry Ownby

Opening Reception of Menage a Trois II Exhibition

Last weekend was the opening reception for the Menage a Trois II Exhibition at the Watson Studio Gallery in Johnson City, just outside of Austin, Texas. Carol Watson, the gallery owner, was kind enough to post a video of the opening reception. Within 30 seconds of the beginning of the video, you will see the camera pan across my three images on display there: Tall Rancher, SuperMan, and Big John.

Opening Reception

Triptychs

Some images work well in and of themselves and need no supporting cast, whether that be text, audio, or other images. Yet other times, images seem to tell a better story when grouped as a package, as viewers sometimes find in photo stories or photo essays found in newspapers or magazines. But photojournalistic stories are not what I what to write about tonight. (Although I am a huge fan of W. Eugene Smith’s photo stories in Life magazine!)

Grouping images in pairs or trios is the topic instead. Specifically I am referring to diptychs and triptychs. In this blog I have already posted several diptychs, but tonight it’s about triptychs. The word triptych comes from an early writing tablet used by the Romans in which there was one central writing panel flanked by additional panels left and right, which were hinged to the central one. Eventually this configuration was adopted by early Christian artists and was used for both paintings and carved reliefs, such as the Byzantine Harbaville Triptych from the 10th century CE.

Today many photographers group photos as either diptychs or triptychs, including yours truly. Recently I had the opportunity to enter an international photo competition in Texas and the theme centered around groups of three (read triptych here). The exhibition is called Menage a Trois II , which comes from the French expression ménage à trois, meaning “household of three”. While typically this references a three-way sexual affair, which is not the case here for this exhibition at the Watson Studio Gallery, located not far from Austin, Texas. (However, for an excellent read, try Ernest Hemingway’s In the Garden of Eden, which I read during my grad school days.)

The triptych of images below are the ones accepted for the juried exhibition at the Texas art gallery. The images are: Tall Rancher, SuperMan, and Big John.

© 2009 Terry Ownby

Incongruity: Found American Cultural Objects

Four years ago I began a series of images that came to be through happenstance. In other words, I simply stumbled onto some unlikely situations as they presented themselves to me and I leveraged the photographic opportunity to my creative advantage. Since that serendipitous moment, I have actively sought out similar objects to photograph and so far, I’ve been nicely rewarded with different photographic opportunities.

I’m a big fan of taking road trips throughout the United States (something my father inflicted me with at an early age!) and these trips target my found American cultural objects. The thing is, these pop cultural objects are incongruous with their surroundings or sometimes just life in general. Americans seem infatuated with the notion that “bigger is better” and thus construct these larger-than-life edifices to commemorate this “bigness”.

On a recent trip to Nashville, home of the Grand Ole Opry, I intentionally detoured my road trip to the small Ohio River town of Metropolis, Illinois, home of America’s number one super hero—Superman. I’ve been here numerous times with my folks when I was a kid and had not been back in nearly 40 years, so I was very happy to see Superman still stood next to the court house. But to my surprise, I found another giant in town, Big John, standing vigilantly outside the Big John grocery store. What a deal…two giants for the price of one!

Superman, © 2008, Terry Ownby.

Big John, © 2008, Terry Ownby

Wunderkammer: Specimens Views of my Postmodern Life

Inspiration comes to creatives using various guises. One aspect of the creative process I’ve tried to articulate to my students is that of being open to life. Ideas that can be used for creative expression find their way to us often times in very unexpected ways. But once the Muse has visited and touched our creative spirit, it’s time to focus and release our energy into that creative project.

Such was the case recently with this new project of personal still lifes, tentatively titled Wunderkammer: Specimens Views of my Postmodern Life. The initial impetus arrived before me this past winter one afternoon while drinking a cup of hot organic chai tea. Tazo to be exact. I became fascinated with the small paper tab attached to the end of the tea bag. This tab looked like an old scientific or museum specimen label and from a graphic design standpoint, I thought this was exceptional. That was the first seed planted by the Muse.

The second inspiration came while viewing images online at Altphotos.com, one of my favorite international websites for serious photographers. In late March, I viewed a still life image entitled Ikon, created by a duet of photographers from Belgium and France known as Parallax(e). Their image was simple: a bottle of water, some onions and fruit in a bowl, and eating cutlery framed behind in display cases. It was the display cases that caught my eye and in that incipient moment, I saw the specimen labels and display cases come together as small vignettes of my life.

Beginning with my childhood during the 1950s and 1960s, heavily influenced by postmodernistic usage of mass media, the series utilizes the technique of reframing to illustrate my life. The first three images address my elementary school years: little league baseball, manned space flight, cub scouts, and my various collections. A singular image emphasizes my high schools days with my focus on being a hippie and loving my music. The series next depicts adulthood showing earlier years while in graduate school, when I enjoyed smoking pipes and cigars. Next comes my shift from hippieism to militarism (I served in all three branches of the military). Farm life and artist address the next pair of images, which occurred simultaneously. Followed lastly by an image depicting my current position as a photography professor. All totaled, there are nine images thus far in this series. Final exhibition size will be 12” x 12” matted in 16” square black frames. Below are a few examples from the series. To view the entire series on-line, click here!

Elementary: Little League, © 2008 Terry Ownby

Farming, © 2008 Terry Ownby

Road Trip USA

Hitting the highway, or road tripping, is a great American pastime. As a child of the 1950s and 1960s, I was raised on the road, so to speak. Especially on the original and now famous US Route 66. Since my folks lived in St. Louis, Missouri, we never drove the Chicago to St. Louis section. But, from St. Louis westward, numerous times we put the rubber to the road!

By the time I was five (circa 1959), our family had driven the St. Louis to Santa Rosa, New Mexico, several times. During that time and afterwards, we also drove it to the end of the line, in Santa Monica, Calif. Back in those days Route 66 was not a four-lane super highway, but rather a two-lane, meandering road with numerous stops along the way. I remember it always being a long, arduous trip, as my folks’ car had no air conditioning. Several times we drove long sections at night to avoid the heat. But I have plenty of daytime memories of those road trips and stopping for water (for the car radiator) and gas before crossing long stretches of desert. Places like Barstow, Needles, Flagstaff, Gallup, Tucumcari, and Amarillo standout in my mind’s eye. There were many small-town diners, typical of that era, which have long since faded away. But one still remains out in California and that was Sambo’s. I remember we stopped at these pancake houses numerous times, especially by my teenage years when we lived in California.

But road trips are more than just driving from point A to point B. It’s about meeting people and visiting friends and family along the way, as well. Last month we did a 2100+ mile road trip in nine days. First leg took us to southern Ohio, where we spent time with my son and his family. Playing with grandkids is always great fun! Next we headed north to Toledo and then westward to Chicago, where we soaked up as much urban culture and fine dining as possible. From there it was further north, to Wisconsin, to visit friends at the university and from my Army days. More great food was enjoyed and vistas of beautiful dairy farms and vineyards were viewed, quite unlike what’s in Missouri.

Road tripping may become a seldom-enjoyed pastime, as oil and gas prices continue to soar. I did notice fewer cars on the interstates during our trip, especially those with out-of-state plates. We even had to adjust our trip by renting a small, economy class car, which was a trade-off in comfort for fuel-efficiency. But regardless, being on the road is part of my lifestyle, and something I immensely enjoy and as long as I can find a means and a way, I’ll be road tripping for a long time!

© 2008 Terry Ownby, I spotted this VW bus, along with another in caravan somewhere in Indiana. The VWs were complete with decals, hula girls on the dash, and love beads and peace signs. Talk about a blast from the past!

© 2008 Terry Ownby, As I moved along photographing these two VW buses, I noticed on the second pass that the driver was into this whole gig and was photographing me! What a hoot! Who said road trips couldn’t be fun?!

© 2008 Terry Ownby, Here’s a small montage from our road trip. Friends, family, and city life!

Summer Holiday

Ahhhhh! Finally, my summer holiday has arrived! Now I’m about to enjoy the pleasure of why I chose to become a university professor…summer break. It did come a bit late for me this year though. So back in May, when my colleagues took their respite after Spring finals and started their bike riding on the Katy Trail WITHOUT me, I’ve pressed on for six more weeks of teaching summer session. Mind you, I’m not complaining about their enjoyment out on the trail, I’ve experienced my own pleasure at what I enjoy most…teaching.

I found teaching two summer sessions rather unique. My intro studio class ran for six weeks, while my digital imaging (i.e., Photoshop) lasted only three weeks. It’s interesting to condense a full 16-week semester into three or six weeks. Nonetheless, the same material and most of the exercises are still accomplished. One thing I did notice was the higher quality of work produced by my students. I suppose there’s multiple variables to account for, such as, highly focused and motivated students, less pressure on me with a lighter load, not having to simultaneously accomplish my doctorate studies, or, maybe it’s just the simple pleasure of teaching two subjects I thoroughly enjoy.

Regardless, my students performed well, received very good marks, and now I’m ready for summer! I came straight home, kicked off my shoes and put on the flip-flops, pulled the shirt-tails out, fixed an excellent whiskey and coke, and plopped down on my favorite chair on the front porch and watched the rain come down. Now I get to relax. Soon I’ll be on a road-trip to visit the grandkids out east, then we’re off to Chicago for some serious urban and cultural infusion, and lastly back to our first married hometown—Madison, Wisconsin, to visit Army buddies and friends.

Reading is high on my list of relaxation activities for the next two months. I’m also planning some serious photography projects. Two specifically. One I see as an on-going project involving old “Fall Out” shelters from the ‘50s and ‘60s Cold War era. Below is a rough, preliminary exploration of where I’m thinking of taking the project. The other project will be solely in the studio, incorporating aspects of important moments from my life in still life format with a “scientific” flavor to it. That one will remain under wraps until finished…sorry no preview! Time to sign off, as tomorrow will be busy with preparations for vacation!

© 2008 Terry Ownby, Education Fall Out.