In August of 2020, well into my pandemic seclusion, I stumbled upon small sculptures placed alongs paths and hidden in wooded areas of a local park. They seemed like magical elements of what had become an angst laden landscape. Someone had shared these objects with the world. They made me smile.
Thoughts of them stayed with me and I began to think about how I might do something similar with my own work. Photographs don’t easily lend themselves to placement in the outdoors, but I eventually came up with something I could share.
I call it my Photography Folios Project.
The first folio is a collection of seven photos made over the past year at the Pennsylvania Military Museum. It’s a wonderful landscape to walk and be outdoors during the pandemic. And even though I’ve been there hundreds of times over the years, when I started to photograph in a more deliberate way, I began to see the unique character of the grounds.
The folio prints are handmade, inkjet prints on archival paper. Each print is titled, signed, and dated on the back. Also included is a page describing the project. Everything is placed inside a matte black envelop and then placed inside a clear plastic bag. There is also a sheet that can be seen indicating what’s inside to reduce the chance that someone tosses it into a waste can as trash.
The folios are placed on a bench or wall at the park and I have no idea what will happen to them after I leave. They’ve been set free in the world for a chance at life different than a box in my closet.
If a folio has found its way to you feel free to leave a comment. It would be nice to know how they’re doing.
Technical Information
The images were captured with Fujifilm digital cameras. The cameras used for the folio images were a Fuji XT-2 and a Fuji X100F. (These are Amazon Affiliate links. If you use them and buy something they might kick a few dollars my way.)
The pigment prints were produced with an Epson P800 Photo Printer on archival Epson Exhibition Fiber paper.
All image processing for this project was done on an Apple iMac (Retina 4K, 21″).
Adobe Lightroom Classic was used to process, select, and print the photographs.
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