Art Goes the Gato II
Photographs by Andrew Howard
Artist's Statement:
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This display of twenty photographs from four locations-Yosemite
National Park, Iceland, Boston, and The Farm-is my first individual
exhibition. [It was shown in late 2005 at Dudley House at Harvard University.]
While I have used cameras most of my life, it is only
during the past year and a half that I have become serious about
photography. During that time I have experimented with many different
photographic styles and subjects, and have come to particularly enjoy
photographing landscapes and the natural world. When it is possible
and appropriate, I like to study how natural light interacts with a
given subject, and try to photograph it during the time and from the
place where the light accentuates the essential characteristics of the
subject.
I shoot with digital cameras (currently a Canon 300D) using a variety of lenses (five for this exhibition). I try to devote both time and thought to selecting, composing, and exposing an image, as well as to subtly refining it in the digital darkroom. With luck, the resulting prints accurately represent what I saw and, just as importantly, how it made me feel. Besides photography, I'm pursuing a PhD in physics (with a specialty in astrophysics) and will likely graduate next June. My research focuses on the optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can contact me at howard [at] physics [dot] harvard [dot] edu.
Andrew Howard
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Iceland
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Although stark and often barren, the land of Iceland is bold and
beautiful. Isolated by oceans, its contours are molded by the forces
of glaciers, volcanoes, geysers, and the hearty Viking descendents
that sparsely populate the land. This journey though Iceland is
illustrated in eight photographs, each taken in June of 2004 and
printed shortly before the exhibition.
Two of the basic forces shaping Iceland are seen clearly in Glacial Rocks and Volcanic Rocks. These images are of the crushed earth, revealed by the receding Gigjokull glacier, and of an unusual formation in the volcanic basalt columns at the cliffs on the southern shores of Iceland. The scene atop these cliffs is brought to life in Puffins. These birds, with their wonderfully expressive faces and shy temperaments, number in the tens of thousands on this North Atlantic site alone. Not far away, the Lighthouse at Vik, Iceland keeps ships away from the dangerous, rocky shoreline. The glaciers and icecaps of Iceland-which cover a sizable fraction of the island-sculpt, crush, and grind the land. The ice sheets feed numerous rivers and waterfalls, as seen in Svartifoss, while others make their way to the sea intact, as seen in Glacial Icebergs. The struggle for survival was unrelenting during much of the thousand year inhabited history of Iceland. The winter needs of shelter and warmth were so great that early Icelanders chopped down nearly every tree on the island. Since then, sheep have roamed free over the entire island, eating every tree bud before it gets foothold. And thus, except in a few small rehabilitation areas, the forests of Iceland have never regrown. The lack of trees, coupled with the lush green grasses and rough mountain features, create unusual and vivid landscapes, like the one seen in Farm near Skogar, Iceland. Today, the hard existence of country life is nearly gone. Most of the 280,000 Icelanders live in the charming capital, Reykjavik, Iceland.
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Yosemite National Park
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The four images in this collection attempt to show the majestic beauty
of Yosemite National Park. Carved by glaciers, the steep walls of
Yosemite Valley rise nearly 5000 feet. Half Dome, Yosemite
National Park shows one famous feature of the Valley, taken from
Glacier Point, at sunset with clouds forming at different elevations
as the weather quickly changed. North Dome, Yosemite National
Park shows the impressive scale of the mountains, as seen from the
valley floor. (Yosemite aficionados may recognize the Golden Arches
formation in the extreme right edge of the granite face.)
Fires -- both natural and man-made -- burn constantly throughout one part of the Park or another, and are part of the Park's natural life cycle. Indeed, trees such as the Giant Sequoia require fires to open their cones and distribute their seeds. Controlled Burn shows the forest obscured by the smoke from a nearby fire, but still penetrated by sunlight. Finally, Corn Lilies shows one of many plants that thrive in varied ecosystems of Yosemite. This particular species lives in the Park's higher mountain valleys and doesn't sprout until late spring. They were photographed at dawn about two weeks after the snow finally melted. Andrew captured these images on a weeklong camping trip with his brother, Dan Howard, in June of 2005.
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The Farm
| Although it could be almost anywhere in the fertile plains of middle America, this farm is the Muirhead family farm in Plato Center, Illinois. The cycle of the seasons is seen in two photographs of the same barn taken six months apart -- Barn in Winter and Barn in Summer. The farmer and the machines, pictured in Glenn Muirhead and Glenn's Tractor, worked the land for sixty years. Sadly, after a long life, Glenn passed away just a few weeks after this portrait was taken. Glenn was the grandfather of the photographer's fiancee, Sarah Muirhead. |
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Boston
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These four images from the Boston area are small windows into a long
and rich history.
Colonial times are depicted with reinactors in Concord in 1775 at Old North Bridge. The more recent past is seen in Telescope Gears-a small part of a still-working instrument, exquisitely crafted one hundred years ago by the famous telescope maker Alvin Clark. In Kerry Concession Speech, November 3rd, 2004, four Bostonians share their shock and grief over the outcome of the last presidential election. Current Bostonians of all political persuasions surely will not forget the school-canceling, car-burying three-foot blizzard pictured in The Great Snow of 2005.
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