Paul Raphaelson Photographs | Artist's Statement

2005-2009

Abandoned, overgrown spaces lurk around every corner in Bushwick, Brooklyn. When I moved here in 2004, I missed the the grandeur of the factories and bridges from my old waterfront neighborhood. I walked past Bushwick's lots for a year before finding any inspiration. I gradually learned to look closely, sometimes through chinks in fences or at the pavement under my feet. I've since been seduced by the surprises I find here, including cast-offs of local culture and the relentless thriving of flowers and weeds.

Paradise is the Persian word for a walled enclosure. As often as not, in the city the walls are cyclone fences crowned with razorwire. Whatever they lack in charm they make up by providing a framed view from the outside. I find solace in the spontaneous gardens behind the fences. And I'm inspired by all the wild things invading them, by the relief they bring from the city's often antiseptic geometry and sheen.

WILDERNESS

1994-2004

These photographs explore my relationship to place—physical, cultural, metaphorical—over ten years, in generally desolate surroundings.

In the early Nineteen-nineties I lived in Providence, Rhode Island, in a landscape at turns overgrown and barren. New England row houses abutted empty lots and crumbling husks of factories, all joined in a web of trees, weeds, cyclone fences, and high tension wires. Layers of growth and decay confounded attempts at easy interpretation. The landscape, formed largely by accident and neglect, felt somehow like the work of a larger process. I saw an unconscious synergy in the work of people, plants, and erosion that had shaped these spaces over many years. When I moved and continued the project in an industrial section of Brooklyn, the mix of these elements changed, but the underlying sensibility stayed the same. There was much to explore beneath the surfaces of desolation and trash.

I titled the work Wilderness in response to these impressions. The word has held different meanings for different cultures over the years, but has usually conveyed a sense of mystery, of otherness, and of escape from the borders of the comfortable and the known. Wilderness has named what we fear but at the same time long for, often with a sense that there, away from the comfort and attachments of our everyday lives, we might somehow find ourselves.

SOUTHWEST

1988-ongoing

This work started when I was a student, grew over the years I lived in southern Colorado, and will likely continue to evolve whenever I have a chance to visit.

Can anything worthwhile be added to the ever-growing pile of pictures of the southwest? The challenge used to be finding form in the vast chaos; now it’s avoiding the picturesque clichés we’ve been looking at all our lives. I try—with mixed success I suspect—to capture reactions that are immediate and personal, and also true, in some sense that’s larger than myself. While in the Southwest, my impressions are usually some mix of awe and disappointment, serenity and anger. Conflict seems inherent to the physical landscape as well as the emotional one; the region has long been a battleground for opposing ideologies and myths. The scars from these battles are evident almost everywhere.

I’d like to make some sense, without rhetoric, of the beautiful land between these scars and of some of the scars themselves.

CHICAGO

1988-1990

These pictures represent my earliest work. They were made when I was a student, revisiting and rediscovering the city where I grew up. The winter pictures were all made during a ten day period in 1989, with help from a grant from the Colorado College.


		SUB/CULTURE 2012 Working Statement LOST SPACES, FOUND GARDENS 2005-2009 Abandoned, overgrown spaces lurk around every corner in Bushwick, Brooklyn. When I moved here in 2004, I missed the the grandeur of the factories and bridges from my old waterfront neighborhood. I walked past Bushwick's lots for a year before finding any inspiration. I gradually learned to look closely, sometimes through chinks in fences or at the pavement under my feet. I've since been seduced by the surprises I find here, including cast-offs of local culture and the relentless thriving of flowers and weeds. Paradise is the Persian word for a walled enclosure. As often as not, in the city the walls are cyclone fences crowned with razorwire. Whatever they lack in charm they make up by providing a framed view from the outside. I find solace in the spontaneous gardens behind the fences. And I'm inspired by all the wild things invading them, by the relief they bring from the city's often antiseptic geometry and sheen. WILDERNESS 1994-2004 These photographs explore my relationship to place—physical, cultural, metaphorical—over ten years, in generally desolate surroundings. In the early Nineteen-nineties I lived in Providence, Rhode Island, in a landscape at turns overgrown and barren. New England row houses abutted empty lots and crumbling husks of factories, all joined in a web of trees, weeds, cyclone fences, and high tension wires. Layers of growth and decay confounded attempts at easy interpretation. The landscape, formed largely by accident and neglect, felt somehow like the work of a larger process. I saw an unconscious synergy in the work of people, plants, and erosion that had shaped these spaces over many years. When I moved and continued the project in an industrial section of Brooklyn, the mix of these elements changed, but the underlying sensibility stayed the same. There was much to explore beneath the surfaces of desolation and trash. I titled the work Wilderness in response to these impressions. The word has held different meanings for different cultures over the years, but has usually conveyed a sense of mystery, of otherness, and of escape from the borders of the comfortable and the known. Wilderness has named what we fear but at the same time long for, often with a sense that there, away from the comfort and attachments of our everyday lives, we might somehow find ourselves. SOUTHWEST 1988-ongoing This work started when I was a student, grew over the years I lived in southern Colorado, and will likely continue to evolve whenever I have a chance to visit. Can anything worthwhile be added to the ever-growing pile of pictures of the southwest? The challenge used to be finding form in the vast chaos; now it’s avoiding the picturesque clichés we’ve been looking at all our lives. I try—with mixed success I suspect—to capture reactions that are immediate and personal, and also true, in some sense that’s larger than myself. While in the Southwest, my impressions are usually some mix of awe and disappointment, serenity and anger. Conflict seems inherent to the physical landscape as well as the emotional one; the region has long been a battleground for opposing ideologies and myths. The scars from these battles are evident almost everywhere. I’d like to make some sense, without rhetoric, of the beautiful land between these scars and of some of the scars themselves. CHICAGO 1988-1990 These pictures represent my earliest work. They were made when I was a student, revisiting and rediscovering the city where I grew up. The winter pictures were all made during a ten day period in 1989, with help from a grant from the Colorado College.

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