Protected Landscapes: External & Internal
Summer 2024
Randy Richmond
Main Floor Gallery
Randy Richmond
Main Floor Gallery
Exhibit Info & Statement
May 20, 2024 - July 20, 2024
Protected Landscapes: External & Internal
External/
Landscape photography has always been therapy for me. I think that makes some sense. Landscape is where I started over 40 years ago, and it’s where I go back to when the world is particularly frustrating. Finding sense, and logic in an external space when mankind is focused on destruction of its resources and people gives me a sense of security. When I realize that sense of security is false, I am compelled to rush back to the external for two reasons. Reason number one is to be sure these external landscapes still exist. The second reason is to make sure I see them one more time before they are taken away.
Internal\
Over-explaining these still-life images would diminish the purposeful under-explaining they provide. They are inspired by relationships between people, and people and the environment. The ambiguity fuels an emotional response. Large gaping voids are left between purpose and understanding, focus and air, line and surface. Beauty emerges from places unfamiliar to the experience. The roadmap to understanding is a collage of tattered memories taped together, roughly folded, and stuffed into an age-stained envelope not quite large enough to hold the contents.
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At some point during the last couple of years, my still-life work began to influence my landscapes. Spare and barely focused, the still-life work uses light, color, and focus to allow the elements to establish their place in the visual hierarchy. The landscape work began reflecting this same approach, and my point of view became narrower. Influence the other way also became apparent. I started viewing the still-life work as landscapes. Exhibiting them together will start conversations about the relationships, and stories that the still-life work and the landscapes share.
Landscape photography has always been therapy for me. I think that makes some sense. Landscape is where I started over 40 years ago, and it’s where I go back to when the world is particularly frustrating. Finding sense, and logic in an external space when mankind is focused on destruction of its resources and people gives me a sense of security. When I realize that sense of security is false, I am compelled to rush back to the external for two reasons. Reason number one is to be sure these external landscapes still exist. The second reason is to make sure I see them one more time before they are taken away.
Internal\
Over-explaining these still-life images would diminish the purposeful under-explaining they provide. They are inspired by relationships between people, and people and the environment. The ambiguity fuels an emotional response. Large gaping voids are left between purpose and understanding, focus and air, line and surface. Beauty emerges from places unfamiliar to the experience. The roadmap to understanding is a collage of tattered memories taped together, roughly folded, and stuffed into an age-stained envelope not quite large enough to hold the contents.
-
At some point during the last couple of years, my still-life work began to influence my landscapes. Spare and barely focused, the still-life work uses light, color, and focus to allow the elements to establish their place in the visual hierarchy. The landscape work began reflecting this same approach, and my point of view became narrower. Influence the other way also became apparent. I started viewing the still-life work as landscapes. Exhibiting them together will start conversations about the relationships, and stories that the still-life work and the landscapes share.
About the Artist
As an artist Randy Richmond’s ability to capture the tension that occupies the space between subject and background, light and dark bring a palpable vibration that imbues his photographic work with a sense of depth and time. The landscape and still-life arrangement have been areas of concentration for Richmond for much of his career as an artist. Recently these two genres merged in a body of work that became a solo exhibition at the Figge Art Museum (Davenport, IA.) titled “Verisimilitude”.
Richmond utilizes a cross-pollination of photographic mediums like ingredients in a photographic cookbook to bring each piece to print. Various projects are printed according to content and concept. Historic processes including Van Dyke Brown and Cyanotype, as well as highly refined archival inkjet prints using pigment-based ink are incorporated. He insists on making each print himself to ensure his voice is not lost in translation.
Stretching the edges of the photographic image to tell a story has been a prominent feature of Randy Richmond's work since his student days at the University of Iowa. Because of this, he has received the attention of several authors with his visual storytelling ability resulting in several book cover contracts, including one for Beacon Press.
Richmond has shown his work in numerous solo, group, invitational, and juried exhibits nationally, and internationally. He has been represented in eight museum exhibitions including three group exhibits, one invitational exhibit, and one solo exhibition. His interpretation of environmental issues have been the focus of special exhibits created for the Door County Land Trust (WI.), the Keeweenaw Land Trust (MI.), the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (IA.), and the Nahant Marsh (IA.). His work is in permanent collections at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, the Figge art museum in Davenport, Iowa, The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado, Kishwaukee College in Malta Illinois, and Project Art of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He balances his creative time with teaching photography as an adjunct instructor at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.
Richmond utilizes a cross-pollination of photographic mediums like ingredients in a photographic cookbook to bring each piece to print. Various projects are printed according to content and concept. Historic processes including Van Dyke Brown and Cyanotype, as well as highly refined archival inkjet prints using pigment-based ink are incorporated. He insists on making each print himself to ensure his voice is not lost in translation.
Stretching the edges of the photographic image to tell a story has been a prominent feature of Randy Richmond's work since his student days at the University of Iowa. Because of this, he has received the attention of several authors with his visual storytelling ability resulting in several book cover contracts, including one for Beacon Press.
Richmond has shown his work in numerous solo, group, invitational, and juried exhibits nationally, and internationally. He has been represented in eight museum exhibitions including three group exhibits, one invitational exhibit, and one solo exhibition. His interpretation of environmental issues have been the focus of special exhibits created for the Door County Land Trust (WI.), the Keeweenaw Land Trust (MI.), the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (IA.), and the Nahant Marsh (IA.). His work is in permanent collections at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, the Figge art museum in Davenport, Iowa, The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado, Kishwaukee College in Malta Illinois, and Project Art of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He balances his creative time with teaching photography as an adjunct instructor at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.
Exhibit Images
