Country Living Photo Essay Part 3
by Sean Gilchrist ’17, joint Samek Art Museum/Place Studies Fellow
Part art project, part photo ethnography, Sean will be responding to themes present in Country Living by documenting images of rural life in Lewisburg and the surrounding region. See how this project grows during the course of the exhibition.
“Public lighting serves many utilitarian purposes. Needs such as safety, aesthetics, and order are all maintained through the artificial lighting of public spaces. By curbing the dark, one effectively takes control of the night. However the manner in which one does this is crucial in determining how these man-made structures affect the environment. Aesthetic differences in these lights can be used to maintain the appearance of a cultivated socioeconomic status, or conversely, may be strictly utilitarian. This photo essay articulates these discrepancies in appearance in an attempt to indicate to the viewer the varied nature of public lighting in the region.”
“The natural landscape of a place has an inherent spirit. When this is disturbed through human actions a new atmosphere is formed. Mining in quarries show this change in an extreme manner. When one sets foot in a quarry, one is transported to an other-worldly environment. Rocks and sediment once left unseen are now made visible. This photo essay attempts to portray the almost supernatural experience of being within an area where the natural state of the land is changed in such epic proportions.”
