“I want you to play that again, only this time make it faster, but slower.”
– Martin Hannett, to the members of Joy Division, during the recording of Unknown Pleasures, 1977
In the spring of 2017, I sat in the passenger seat of my father-in-law’s car, camera in hand, watching Willamette Valley riverscapes scroll past my window. As the light was storm-perfect, my impulse was to ask for photography pull-overs. There were so many fine subjects that I mentally had our touring company stopping every mile or so. This seemed an obnoxious request, so I didn’t speak up. Frustrated, I set my Fuji X100-F camera to a 1/1000th of a second shutter speed, thinking that this would eradicate any car movement from the world around me. I didn’t take a single exposure. This was just silly. How was I supposed to compose or know my subjects at 45 miles per hour?
Impish?
Inspired?
In a moment of grace, I thought, or rather just felt, why not set the shutter slow and work with the movement? That seemed an honest response to a fast landscape. A car-window world of unfolding flower fields, barns, branches, and blurs. This would be my subject, and I took around 200 pictures that afternoon.
For several weeks I didn’t look at the work; I was afraid of failure. When I found my courage, and when I saw that first post-impressionist smear of green, yellow, and orange, I began laughing. This is why I am a photographer: experimentation, beauty, surprise, & joy.
– Jeffrey Martz
RSVP catering will be serving light appetizers and wine.
On view through March 30.
