VisualConfirmation Keith Bennett
Keith Bennett Alternative Landscapes and Skewed Points of view 2007-2012
VisualConfirmation
T
his is where it all started. On this lonely stretch of winding road in the North Georgia mountains, passing through Woody Gap, descending through the desolate embrace of a mid winter’s pre dusk fog, alone in a tangle of conflicting emotions. Just a few minutes prior to this moment, my good friend, who I was supposed to be following, had accelerated and suddenly was nowhere to be seen, his experience with the steep turns of the road much greater than my own. In a self inflicted moment of blind passion that had crystallized into a vein of clear determination, he had shaken loose the foundation of his life - his marriage, his business, his home - and now the pieces were falling down all around him. All I could do was to try my best to break his fall. I had offered to help him with this inevitable move and I had dedicated this day to doing just that, helping him in the physical act of carting away in boxes that which he could he could not bear to leave behind. And rendering what moral support I could muster. I was not prepared however for the shifting emotional freight that I myself would soon be grappling with on that raw, gray February day. As I sat in my loaded vehicle waiting while wrote a note for his daughter, struggling to put into writing thoughts that no words could ever adequately express, my thoughts wandered off the mountain to my own family back home, an hour and half and a million miles away. With no cell phone reception contact was not possible. All I could do was sit and wait forlornly as the fog started moving in, replacing the brittle rain that had earlier in the day scolded us as we had silently loaded box after box into our cars. More than anything on earth I wanted to hear my wife’s voice at that moment and to be home with my children, basking in the glow of their innocence. Suddenly my friend was at my window like a wild animal that darts suddenly into your headlights on a dark country evening. It was time to go. We were off in a splash of gravel and mud, then winding our way down the steep inclines,his brake lights peeking through the bare winter trees as I rounded every curve, getting farther and farther away until finally there was no trace of brake lights or of my friend. So I slowed down, taking my time now on the graceful, curving descent, knowing that there was only one way down and that I would catch up to him once I reached the base of the mountain. To calm my mind and to involve me in the moment, as if driving in a fog down the side of a mountain were not stimulating enough, I reached over and grabbed my point and shoot camera and took the photo that would eventually become the first image created in this body of work and the first image presented here.
I caught up with the madman at the bottom as presumed and I followed him for almost another hour before we reached our destination. After unloading my cargo I proceeded to make my way home, swept along in a torrent down I-85, the highway and my mind both lost in a blur of shifting colors against a deep, black veil of rain, bouncing all the way on the wake of passing semi trucks. When finally I made it home I fell into the arms of my wife and kids and then began to download the considerable number of photos I had collected earlier. I was pleasantly surprised. I am an art director by profession, compensated for hiring photographers, guiding them toward the realization of my own particular vision while carefully avoiding stepping upon theirs. But I do not consider myself to be a photographer, not in that sense - not to the degree that I can predict the results of my efforts with any degree of accuracy. I had studied drawing and painting back at art school, long ago and far away, but had opted for a professional life of making art for commerce. And as satisfying as that had been to large degree, there had always been that longing, that feeling of unrequited love for the act of creating for the sake of creating. Of experiencing a relationship with an evolving image - and considering that experience to be the very goal - the resulting artwork but a by product of that creative moment. Lost in the sheer joy of not knowing where you are going as long as the journey is one of utter fulfillment. As I began to play with the images gathered that day, using mostly Photoshop, I began to resurrect those old feelings. That evening’s endeavor led to more driving and shooting and more photo manipulation and soon, what began as a diversion to steady my nerves, became a full blown obsession. This collection is a cross sampling of the by products of that all consuming passion, the relentless herding of gathered pixels, I call my Photoshop Obsessive Complex. Therefore, I do not think of the body of work as photographic. Each piece begins life as a photograph it is true, but the capture of pixels in the wild represents the only step in the process in which the image could indeed be said to resemble a photograph. The landscape aspect, however obliterated, is always there, even if it is but a mere ancestor of the work at hand. But many of the pieces are purely about color, form, movement, the illusion of perspective and the ever captivating allure of the edge of the page. In other words, they are comprised of all the elements of a painting. Except for, of course, the paint. Keith Bennett June, 2012
Right: Leaving After All, 2007
Amelia Morning Magic, 2007
Windswept, 2007 j
Oxide and Sweet Tea, 2007
Ascention, 2010 j
Blue-green Envy, 2009
Standard Tree Song, 2010 j
Purple Daze, 2012
Indeterminate Fog, 2011 j
Mekong Delta, 2009
Zen Fell Like Rain, 2008 j
The Eye of Grace, 2008
Forbidden Tide, 2007 j
Unhappy Accident, 2008
Ponce de Leon, 2011 j
The Sea We Used to Know, 2007 Expression of Delight, 2009 j
Heaven and Hell, 2012
Rural Free Delivery, 2008 j
Tangled up in Truth, 2009
Going Home, 2008 j
Beach Trip, 2010
Twilight Disturbance, 2012
j
Chattahoochee Daydream, 2009
Sandy Springs, 2009
j
Manufactured Past, 2010
Spalding Event, 2007
j
Mellow Mushroom, 2011
Tree of Knowledge, 2012
j
Adreneline, 2011
Trouble in an Untroubled Land, 2011 j
Ghost of the Midway, 2010
Unusual Tangle, 2009
j
Waking up Dead, 2009
Through the Better Woods, 2007
j
High Street Melody, 2011
Low Morning Log, 2011 j
Remember This? 2010
Rivergate, 2009
j
Found, Then Lost, 2009
Traffic Tie Up, 2011 j
Hitting the Happy Trail, 2008
The Birth of Creationism, 2010 j
Fossil Record, 2009
River Voodoo, 2009
j
Amelia tempest, 2010 The Last Perfect Day, 2009
j
Sub Tropical Event, 2009
Twisted, Unsweetened, 2010
j
Rusty Conclusion, 2011 Life’s Exquisite Tangle, 2009
j
Amelia As it Can Be , 2007
Switch, 2009 j
Don’t Look It In The Eye, 2008
Winter’s Last Stand, 2010
j
Uneasy Calm, 2010
Spur 19, 2009
j
VISUAL CONFIRMATION • All images © 2012 Keith E. Bennett all rights reserved
Low Country Instrumental, 2011
Urban Pixel Stalking, 2007