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You are here: Home / Archives for industrial photography

The Big Dig in September Light + World/City

September 10, 2013 by Iskra Leave a Comment

The Big Dig In September Light
“The Big Dig In September Light” © Iskra Johnson
The Lamps
“The Lamps,” © Iskra Johnson
Sidewalk Conversation
“Sidewalk Conversation,” © Iskra Johnson
Construction Worker On Bridge
“Man in Orange,” © Iskra Johnson

This morning I went for a bracing walk in the fog along the edge of The Big Dig. I love wandering in that thick industrial hum where no one can listen into your thoughts, not even yourself. All you can do is look, and try not to get run over by a truck.

I’m getting back in Architecture mode for the opening of World/City, the Seattle Architecture Foundation exhibit opening on September 19th. I am excited to have three pieces on display. There will be a reminder posted here next week, but here is the basic information:

World/City: Exploring the Architecture of Global Relationships

September 19 – October 13, 2013 1201 2nd Avenue at Seneca Street
11AM – 2PM, Tues – Sun. Special extended hours till 3PM during the Seattle Design Festival
Experience architecture models, 2D renderings, digital imagery and visual art which represents how local design and architecture are linked to global issues and contexts.

Stay tuned for more information next week.

 

Filed Under: Iskra Shows, Upcoming and Past, Photography Tagged With: architecture, construction sites, industrial photography, photography, Seattle Architecture Foundation, TheBig Dig, World/City

New Portfolio of Construction Site Photography

July 9, 2013 by Iskra Leave a Comment

Landscape With Concrete Forms
Landscape With Concrete Forms, © Iskra Johnson

I photographed my first construction site over 30 years ago. At least three men with bullhorns shouted at me as I walked a long gangplank into the center of an open pit the size of a city block. I could not resist the bright red ladders, the spiking rebar and randomly thrown coils of wire, the orange triangles and cones and wooden spools, the augurs and blades – all massed against a landscape of mud brown and gray. The scene spoke of the chaos phase of creativity, when shape and sense are only dimly glimpsed, and anything is possible. Not to mention that it was BIG. A few months later the newspaper carried a piece about a woman in an evening dress with a cast on her arm who was found, drunk and asleep on a beam in the unfinished 6th story. It occurred to me then that not for nothing do they measure skyscrapers in “stories.”

Barrier View 1

My fascination with monumental structure, excavation, history, surface and the ambiguous terrain between ruin and renewal has continued as our world has moved into a phase of urban development in hyperdrive. You can visit any city in the world and see the unmistakeable filigree of orange cranes rising above the skyline. The new landscape incorporates an ever-changing theater of half-walls, scaffolds, massive draperies and open pits girded by barriers as interesting as what is behind them.

The photographs here reflect the influence of the theory of wabi-sabi: nothing lasts, nothing is finished and nothing is perfect. And within this recognition lies a very particular kind of beauty. Purely documentary photographs form the basis for much of my work in the series Construction/Reconstruction although I often obscure or alter them beyond recognition in the process of collage. The images in this new portfolio stand alone as photographs, a record of a singular time and place. Archival pigment prints are available in a range of sizes.

Plank
Plank, © Iskra Johnson

See more at: Construction Site Photography

Filed Under: Construction/Reconstruction, Photography Tagged With: architectural landscape, architectural photography, building photographs, construction site photography, construction sites, industrial photography, site documentation, wabi sabi in photography

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I’ve written a wild-mind sort of blog post in wh I’ve written a wild-mind sort of blog post in which I let the story of place, museums, witness and culture unfold as it wishes. It’s an old-style post before I had “newsletter consciousness.” (Sigh….when you send out a post with one image and a show announcement and maybe five more words and someone writes, “perfect length to view on my phone” you may be tempted to perform more of the same and forget the original muse, born long before success was judged by how well thoughts fit within 2x5” square inches. A few excerpts here and first link in bio to read the entirety. Witness and elegy is where I seem to live. Painting is acrylic ink on panel, a piece I have yet to resolve but like to see into for the next step.
If you are born on 9.11 take back this day. It’s If you are born on 9.11 take back this day. It’s still yours! Yesterday I started early and went to an island in the middle of the blue sea to be in beauty and celebrate life. As we walked the beach we met a young boy also born on 9.11. His parents had brought him to Vashon for the same reason, and he had found a perfect moon shell for his own birthday present sent from the sea. It was such a lovely moment, to remember the world is young no matter how old we are.
Taking the last golden days of summer for study. T Taking the last golden days of summer for study. The Volunteer Park museum has an exhibit showing the influence of the Edo arts in Japan on Toulouse-Lautrec and I went to see it last weekend. As you can see from these images, I seem to have no interest in Lautrec— True! But these details of woodcuts and paintings on silk fill me with a quiet rapture.
Walking Meditation Walking Meditation
RIP Brian McBride, The Stars of the Lid RIP Brian McBride, The Stars of the Lid
Sunday Morning Meditation: River and woods, stone Sunday Morning Meditation: River and woods, stone and light.

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