Notes on project titled "The Park: Chapter and Verse"

 

For a little over 15 years I have lived within a mile of a County Park. In those 15

years I have made, by estimate, less than two dozen photographs in the Park. I have

used the Park for mountain biking, hiking, attending the occasional event (concerts,

food festivals, etc), but I never made much effort to investigate it as a photographer.

I am not much interested in Nature photography, and this would seem to be the

most likely subject matter in the Park.

Exploring ideas for new photo projects I began thinking about the difficulty of

photographing that which we are most familiar with; that which has become the

everyday background of our existence.

The Park was there, a beckoning antagonist, chiding me to engage it visually.

I don't think I could continue to consider myself a visual artist if I turned my back on

this exploration.

 

In September 2009 I decided to undertake an extended documentary project of

South Park, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

 

This project will be accompanied by research into the Park's history and structure.

I have committed to spending two to three years on this project. In its early form the

project will be divided into a chapter and verse structure. Planned chapters will

include: The Forest, The Structures, The Events, The Visitors, and The Details.

Images within each chapter will be considered a verse with title composed of

creation date and a description.

I.E.: Chapter: The Structures. Images within that chapter would be titled thusly:

20090925_sp_006, Abandoned Transit Station.

The numbers represent the year, month, day the image was created, followed by a

description of the subject.

 

The images represented in the gallery section of the same name are an early sampling from the project.

 

Jon Lisbon

November, 2009

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