Recently, my wife Marion and I were on a road trip which inlcuded going to Santa Fe, New Mexico and environs.  It was on another trip, a couple of years ago, that this series came to be.  As mentioned in the introduction to this series, that I had made a number of trips to the American Southwest but had not produced a significant body of work.  The main reason being this is not my landscape.  Western Canadan with mountains and foothills is my landscape.  I have the time and leisure to explore its nooks and crannies and be able to be in the right place at the right time.  When one is in a place for a short period of time especially a large landscape, it is difficult to really capture much.

This is what makes this series so special.  On the trip two years ago, I had no expectations of doing any significant images but took a camera along – just in case I found the odd thing.  To my delight, there were two locations that spoke to me, Tent Rocks or Kasha – Katuwe National Monument and Bandelier National Park.  I was able to make a good number of strong images that I felt were not derivative and were my own responses to this landscape.

To quote Chief Dan George in his role in Little Big Man, “sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn’t.”  My recent trip was more of the later.  Although we had a wonderful time , seeing new work in the galleries and hiking in new places, not many things spoke to me , but there was one location that I found some new images which was Chimney Rock on Ghost Ranch, the former home of the painter Georgia O’Keefe.  I hope to add these images to the site sometime in the near future.

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks, NM #11

FEATURE PRINT: As a reward for visiting my website, I have decided to add from time to time, a special offer on one image.  I have selected one image from the Operation Desert Form series in light of my recent trip.  The print will be offered in an edition of 50.  On this particular issue, I am offering the option of two sizes, partly to test the market.  So I am offering a 7×7″ image on 8″x10″ paper for $175.00 or a 9 x 9″ image on 11 x14″ paper for $300.  Regular prices would be $250.00 and $450.00 respectively.  The prints are on traditional silver gelatin paper which has an ivory base.  The prints will come matted and ready for framing.  I am hoping to offer this as a regular feature for people to be able to collect my work at an affordable price.

Please visit the rest of the images in Operation Desert Form and look for new ones in the future.

Ray Van Nes

Mt. Sir Donald, Mt. Uto & Eagle Peak, Glacier Park, BC

A brief commentary on how this series came to be and how I get the images.   A few years back, I was hiking Canda’s Glacier National Park in an area known as Roger’s Pass. Most of the trails have two directions, up or down.  Many of these trails have significant elevation gains in the realm of 4000 ft.  On this one occasion my wife Marion and I hiked up Abbott Ridge which gave spectacular views of the surrounding peaks and valleys.  I had with me about 25lbs of camera equipment in the form of a venerable Speed Graphic which takes 4×5 inch negatives.  I had a very productive day and made a number of strong images from the point of view of the summit of the ridge.

I realized from this outing, that this is a rather unique point of view when looking at mountains.  The majority of artists, whether they are painters or photographers, tend to render the mountain landscape from below.   A series is born. Since then, every summer when I venture in to the mountains to hike, I plan a number of excursions to either high ridges or mountain tops to seek new an interesting view points. I have some advantage over others in that I have climbed a fair number of mountains and have a good idea where the more interesting viewpoints might be. I am also still fit and strong enough to pack 20lbs of camera equipment up steep slopes.

Ascending Fortress Col

 The picture on the left is a typical example of one of my outings along with my wife and friends.   This is on the way up Mt. Fortress which is in Kananaskis Park.  One acesses it from a popular hiking destination known as Chester Lake.  Most folks make the 5.5km hike to the lake and are unaware of the spectacular scenery above them.  By the way, I am the one at the front kicking steps in the snow.  A firm snow slope such as this one is a treat to ascend as opposed to loose rocks and gravel known as “scree”.  For those who are not familiar with mountain terms, a col is another word for a pass.  Once we attained the ridge, we still had more hundreds of feet to go up on – you guessed it – “scree”.

Fortress Summit

The camera I use the most on these outings is a 40 -50 year old camera made by the Graflex company.  This is the same company who made those press cameras you see in the movies with the big flash.  Mine is a smaller model (no flash) called a Speed Graphic Century.  It is a folding camera with bellows and is made out of hard resin material called “mahoganite” or possibly the same thing as bakelite.  It is very tough and relatively light.  The camera and one lens weighs 3lbs.  It’s format size is 2 1/4″ x 3 1/4″, which is the size of the negative.  It is designed to use sheet film but I prefer to use a roll film back using 120 format film which is more convenient.  I use slow speed fine grain film for maximum resolution.   The camera is also very ridgid which is a big consideration as it is often very windy on ridges and  mountain summits.  The finale images shows me in action on a lovely summer day.

At this moment there are no final images of that excursion as it is still summer and I am still out making images. After the film is processed, I make a “work print” to determine which ones will make the final cut. Please look for those later this winter.

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks, NM #1

Welcome to my Blog.  Blogging is a new concept to me and hopefully I can have something erudite to say.  I should start off telling you who I am and what I am about.

Like most people, I got involved in photography as a way of recording events and places I had been. I used a cheap point and shoot camera which produced lousy results but sufficient to the purpose.  Only after I was exposed to a friend’s 35mm slides which such things as sharpness and composition.  After seeing the possiblities, I ran out and purchased a 35mm SLR camera and went to work. It took a while to gain some facility and like many amateurs, I read periodicals which gave me a glimpse of a larger photographic world out there.  I became exposed to the works of the ubiquitous Ansel Adams , Edward Weston and others.  This led me to take some courses in darkroom technique which meant primarily black and white although I did dabble in colour printing as well.

Ultimately, it was the monochrome image that took my attention, and I decided to focus mostly on black and white as my medium.  I find colour too literal and harder  to express in a graphic way.   Let us be clear here, photography is a graphic medium just as is etching, lithographs and woodcuts.  Black and white lends itself more readily to graphic design than does colour although there have been some stellar photographers such as Eliot Porter who have mastered colour and used it powerfully.

Photography was created as a documentary medium and for most people that is what it remains.  However, even though I have documentary themes in some of my work, it is its expressive qualities that keep me engaged with the medium.

There will many topics I will explore in this blog that pertain to the type of photography and art that I do but I do want to mention one technical point about my work at this time. ALL of the work on this site, is analog.  That means good old fashioned film.  This will not be a forum for bashing digital imaging, as I have seen some very fine work with that medium.  It is simply that I have spent many years mastering this medium and I can still get supplies and expect to do so for some time to come, and see no point in investing thousands of dollars in new equipment and many hours to learn the new processes to do exactly what I can do now.  I am certain there is an entire blog to discuss this topic but something I firmly believe is that not all new technology is superior to old – it is just different and has different advantages.

Please come in and explore and the galleries and we continue these dicussions in the future.

Ray Van Nes