Signs of American Life – Stephen Tamiesie

Posted July 1st, 2009 / By Stacy Christian in Inspiration, Landscape, Photojournalism

My photographs analyze the relationship between humanity and environment in a muted and simple manner.  In the broadest sense, all humans identify with an environment, whether on a macro level of habitation and commerce or locally through interactions within ones culture.  My purpose in examining this relationship with a camera is to document the effects that humanity brands upon its environment, whether visible or obscured.  The resulting images illustrate a simultaneous portrait of domain, human existence and control – byproducts of a relationship that all individuals have with the space around them.

In the series Signs of American Life I examine a unique characteristic of the remote American landscape.  Often, when traveling throughout the United States, outside of major urban centers, I have felt a loneliness due to the landscape’s foreignness and the distance from other humans and familiarities.  Many times when I felt this isolation, I quickly realized than in fact other humans were close by or had been very recently, leaving signs of their presence.  A picnic bench, portable toilets, a forgotten tourist destination and even humans themselves became evidence that the seclusion I had initially felt while traveling had transformed.  Instead, these scenes produced a bizarre sense of comfort knowing that I was not truly isolated, but the disconnect I felt with the unfamiliar environment continued to remain.  The photographs taken in this series express that what is familiar and unfamiliar can coexist in a single image and are frequently closer than I imagine.

All photographs in Signs of American Life were taken with available light at each location.  A Hasselblad 500c/m using 50mm, 80mm and 150mm lenses and color negative film was used to create the images.  I felt the muted color palette of negative film matched well with the lonely subject matter of the isolated landscape.  The 6×6cm film was processed normally then scanned to create digital files.  Minimal post-production effects were applied to each image, with the intention of translating only traditional darkroom techniques such as exposure, color correction and dodging/burning to computer software.

About the Author

Stephen Tamiesie lives and works in Santa Barbara, CA.  He has been included in various exhibitions including “Brooks Institute’s 60^th Anniversary Retrospective” at The Javits Center, New York City and “Discover America” at Dorothy Polley Gallery, Paris, France.  His work has been published by Esquire, McCann-Erickson Worldwide and is included in the private collection of Marriott International, Inc.