Time and Wisdom of the Land -curated by Debe Arlook and Fred Brashear Jr. > First Place: Prescott Moore Lassman ‘ Al Fresco Bathtub’
First Place: Prescott Moore Lassman ‘ Al Fresco Bathtub’
Prescott Moore Lassman/Al Fresco Bathtub
FIRST PLACE
"In reviewing our submissions, Al Fresco Bathtub was a standout. The traditional use of medium format and black-and-white film is the foundation for its bold chiaroscuro, adding numerous and curiously poetic suggestions to the scene. I’m kept in the flawlessly framed image, led to the homestead (and possible landowner) at the top of the frame, returning to linger with the overflowing freshwater tub and ponder in the waiting seat. Was the setting found or frequented by the photographer? I envision the bathers, sitters, readers, and smokers, as well as the meditators and writers who have sought this everchanging sanctuary over time. Balanced in this mixture of natural and manmade, I’m all in on the mystery and leave the tale I wanted to know to wonder."
JURORS: "In the vast history of landscape photography, who has been most influential in your approach to photographing the landscape?"
PML: "This is a difficult question for me to answer because I do not view myself as a landscape photographer and thus do not know much about landscape photographers other than icons like Ansel Adams and Edward Burtynsky. Instead, I view myself more as a documentary or street photographer who sometimes makes forays into landscape photography. My main influences in that sphere are old-school black & white photographers like Andre Kertesz, Eugene Smith, Diane Arbus, and Weegee. Thus, if I had to pick a landscape photographer who has been influential to me, I’d have to choose another street photographer who also has made rare forays into landscape photography: Joel Meyerowitz. Meyerowitz’s Cape Light is still one of my all-time favorite photography books because of the stillness, balance, and drama in its quiet photographs of the Cape Cod landscape."
JURORS: "With the abundance of digital photography, why did you choose to use the analog process, and how did it enhance your telling of the story?"
PML: "My use of analog photography was more by happenstance than by choice. Although digital photography has been available for decades, I did not really begin shooting digital (other than on my iPhone) until 2022, when I purchased my first digital camera. These photographs were made in the summer of 2021 during a trip to Iceland during the pandemic. I hadn’t shot deliberately in over a decade but I decided to use the trip to get back into photography more seriously again, so I picked up my old Hasselblad to see what would happen. I love the square format, which is extremely rare in landscape photography, and the ability to print the photographs with a black frame around them. In the context of this photo series, the black frame is critical, as it symbolizes the Ring Road around Iceland that we traveled, making each photography a small island unto itself."
JURORS: "It looks like it was shot in medium format, meaning more time and selective effort had to be made in what you were photographing in this environment."
PML: "Yes, the photographs were shot with a Hasselblad medium format camera. It was quite a challenge lugging the camera around Iceland, including on a hike onto a glacier, and to fit the vast Icelandic landscape into a square format. But there was also something meditative about the process, and I was surprised and delighted by the results. As mentioned above, I’ve never thought of myself as a landscape photographer, but these photographs have encouraged me to take more landscape photographs."
MORE ABOUT PRESCOTT MOORE LASSMAN:
Prescott Moore Lassman says, "I am a photographer based in Washington, D.C. focusing mainly on black-and-white photography — somewhere between street and documentary with a strong dose of minimalism for good measure. My subject matter and interests are eclectic, but my approach is mostly intuitive. I search for images that resonate, for moments of synchronicity in everyday life. Because this approach relies on unconscious triggers, my photographs are often richly symbolic, though their meaning is not immediately clear (at least not to me). For me, this is the essence of photography: capturing an image that resonates and then, over the course of months or years, figuring out why.
“Around the Ring” documents my trip to Iceland to drive the Ring Road during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. The tiny island country, with its otherworldly landscapes and laissez-faire attitude, was a breath of fresh air after 18 months of lockdown. Because these images were captured in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, they seem less about the external Icelandic landscapes - stunning as they are - and more about my own internal landscape as I struggled to adjust to this new world order. For me, like for many people, the pandemic forced me to reassess the trajectory of my life. It triggered an internal change that is still unfolding. I feel like one chapter in my life is beginning to end and another just beginning. The photographs in this series thus evince a mixture of both wonder and apprehension — about a new path, changing circumstances, and an unknown future that, at the beginning of the journey, can only be glimpsed hazily through squinted eyes. There is a mix of both exhilaration and fear as one is suspended between two worlds, wondering what comes next. Because Iceland itself seems suspended between worlds, it was a perfect backdrop for these images."
Career Highlights include City Hall Art Collection, Washington, DC,
Individual Artist Fellowship, DCCAH, Washington, DC, First Place, The Human Spirit, LA Photo Curator, Best In Show, Exposed DC 17th and 18th Annual Photo Show, Washington, DC,The Photo Review 2023 Competition
and the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA.
www.instagram.com/lassman_lenswork
TIME & WISDOM OF THE LAND HOME PAGE:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-
FIRST PLACE:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/first-place-prescott-moore-lassman-al-fresco-bathtub---/1
SECOND PLACE:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/second-place-thomas-ladd-san-carlos----/1
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/honorable-mentions-edward-montgomery-kinetic-ambiguity-66036-martin-cox-no-trace-01-bremner-benedict-willow-artesian-spring-fed-creek----/1
BEST SERIES:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/best-series-donna-bassin-series-environmental-melancholia-precarious-places----/1
EXHIBITION #1:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/exhibition-1/1
EXHIBITION #2:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/exhibition-2/1
EXHIBITION #3:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/exhibition-3/1
FIRST PLACE
FIRST PLACE IMAGE: "AL FRESCO BATHTUB" BY PRESCOTT MOORE LASSMAN
IMAGE REVIEWS BY JURORS DEBE ARLOOK & FRED BRASHEAR JR.
IMAGE REVIEWS BY JURORS DEBE ARLOOK & FRED BRASHEAR JR.
"Congratulations, your image Al Fresco Bathtub is a wonderful example of the timeless quality of analog photography. Your composition and presentation of the uncropped image are a strong indication of the level of execution and professionalism as the first-place winner for Time and Wisdom of the Land. Often incorporating analog photography in my own artistic practice, I appreciate the edge-to-edge detail of medium format cameras. The square format was an artistically strong choice for the scene you photographed. Congratulations once again on your beautiful capture of the landscape for Time and Wisdom of the Land."
-FRED BRASHEAR JR.
-FRED BRASHEAR JR.
"In reviewing our submissions, Al Fresco Bathtub was a standout. The traditional use of medium format and black-and-white film is the foundation for its bold chiaroscuro, adding numerous and curiously poetic suggestions to the scene. I’m kept in the flawlessly framed image, led to the homestead (and possible landowner) at the top of the frame, returning to linger with the overflowing freshwater tub and ponder in the waiting seat. Was the setting found or frequented by the photographer? I envision the bathers, sitters, readers, and smokers, as well as the meditators and writers who have sought this everchanging sanctuary over time. Balanced in this mixture of natural and manmade, I’m all in on the mystery and leave the tale I wanted to know to wonder."
-DEBE ARLOOK
QUESTIONS FOR PRESCOTT MOORE LASSMAN FROM THE JURORS:
JURORS DEBE ARLOOK & FRED BRASHEAR JR. : "In the vast history of landscape photography, who has been most influential in your approach to photographing the landscape?"
PRESCOTT MOORE LASSMAN: "With the abundance of digital photography, why did you choose to use the analog process, and how did it enhance your telling of the story? It looks like it was shot in medium format, meaning more time and selective effort had to be made in what you were photographing in this environment."
PRESCOTT MOORE LASSMAN: "With the abundance of digital photography, why did you choose to use the analog process, and how did it enhance your telling of the story? It looks like it was shot in medium format, meaning more time and selective effort had to be made in what you were photographing in this environment."
JURORS: "In the vast history of landscape photography, who has been most influential in your approach to photographing the landscape?"
PML: "This is a difficult question for me to answer because I do not view myself as a landscape photographer and thus do not know much about landscape photographers other than icons like Ansel Adams and Edward Burtynsky. Instead, I view myself more as a documentary or street photographer who sometimes makes forays into landscape photography. My main influences in that sphere are old-school black & white photographers like Andre Kertesz, Eugene Smith, Diane Arbus, and Weegee. Thus, if I had to pick a landscape photographer who has been influential to me, I’d have to choose another street photographer who also has made rare forays into landscape photography: Joel Meyerowitz. Meyerowitz’s Cape Light is still one of my all-time favorite photography books because of the stillness, balance, and drama in its quiet photographs of the Cape Cod landscape."
JURORS: "With the abundance of digital photography, why did you choose to use the analog process, and how did it enhance your telling of the story?"
PML: "My use of analog photography was more by happenstance than by choice. Although digital photography has been available for decades, I did not really begin shooting digital (other than on my iPhone) until 2022, when I purchased my first digital camera. These photographs were made in the summer of 2021 during a trip to Iceland during the pandemic. I hadn’t shot deliberately in over a decade but I decided to use the trip to get back into photography more seriously again, so I picked up my old Hasselblad to see what would happen. I love the square format, which is extremely rare in landscape photography, and the ability to print the photographs with a black frame around them. In the context of this photo series, the black frame is critical, as it symbolizes the Ring Road around Iceland that we traveled, making each photography a small island unto itself."
JURORS: "It looks like it was shot in medium format, meaning more time and selective effort had to be made in what you were photographing in this environment."
PML: "Yes, the photographs were shot with a Hasselblad medium format camera. It was quite a challenge lugging the camera around Iceland, including on a hike onto a glacier, and to fit the vast Icelandic landscape into a square format. But there was also something meditative about the process, and I was surprised and delighted by the results. As mentioned above, I’ve never thought of myself as a landscape photographer, but these photographs have encouraged me to take more landscape photographs."
MORE ABOUT PRESCOTT MOORE LASSMAN:
Prescott Moore Lassman says, "I am a photographer based in Washington, D.C. focusing mainly on black-and-white photography — somewhere between street and documentary with a strong dose of minimalism for good measure. My subject matter and interests are eclectic, but my approach is mostly intuitive. I search for images that resonate, for moments of synchronicity in everyday life. Because this approach relies on unconscious triggers, my photographs are often richly symbolic, though their meaning is not immediately clear (at least not to me). For me, this is the essence of photography: capturing an image that resonates and then, over the course of months or years, figuring out why.
“Around the Ring” documents my trip to Iceland to drive the Ring Road during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. The tiny island country, with its otherworldly landscapes and laissez-faire attitude, was a breath of fresh air after 18 months of lockdown. Because these images were captured in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, they seem less about the external Icelandic landscapes - stunning as they are - and more about my own internal landscape as I struggled to adjust to this new world order. For me, like for many people, the pandemic forced me to reassess the trajectory of my life. It triggered an internal change that is still unfolding. I feel like one chapter in my life is beginning to end and another just beginning. The photographs in this series thus evince a mixture of both wonder and apprehension — about a new path, changing circumstances, and an unknown future that, at the beginning of the journey, can only be glimpsed hazily through squinted eyes. There is a mix of both exhilaration and fear as one is suspended between two worlds, wondering what comes next. Because Iceland itself seems suspended between worlds, it was a perfect backdrop for these images."
Career Highlights include City Hall Art Collection, Washington, DC,
Individual Artist Fellowship, DCCAH, Washington, DC, First Place, The Human Spirit, LA Photo Curator, Best In Show, Exposed DC 17th and 18th Annual Photo Show, Washington, DC,The Photo Review 2023 Competition
and the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA.
www.instagram.com/lassman_lenswork
TIME & WISDOM OF THE LAND HOME PAGE:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-
FIRST PLACE:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/first-place-prescott-moore-lassman-al-fresco-bathtub---/1
SECOND PLACE:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/second-place-thomas-ladd-san-carlos----/1
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/honorable-mentions-edward-montgomery-kinetic-ambiguity-66036-martin-cox-no-trace-01-bremner-benedict-willow-artesian-spring-fed-creek----/1
BEST SERIES:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/best-series-donna-bassin-series-environmental-melancholia-precarious-places----/1
EXHIBITION #1:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/exhibition-1/1
EXHIBITION #2:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/exhibition-2/1
EXHIBITION #3:
https://laphotocurator.com/time-and-wisdom-of-the-land-curated-by-debe-arlook-and-fred-brashear-jr-/exhibition-3/1
