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Craig Blacklock knows Lake Superior. He has been on the water since his boyhood, and as an adult, he has kayaked thousands of miles along all four of its shores in pursuit of images for many of his 19 books.
And yet, for his most recent project and the resulting artbook, he admits not only to seeing the Lake in a new way, but creating his images in an unfamiliar process.
“In standard landscape images,” Craig says, “I make something like three captures. I’m very confident of what I’m getting.”
He’s confident, of course, because before releasing the shutter on those three photographs, he’s already put in hours scoping the best time of day for lighting, the best perspective for the composition and has set up the camera, with the right settings and the right lens, on a sturdy tripod. Then he “snaps” three or four shots.
But for Light Waves: Abstract Photographs of Reflections on Lake Superior, the point of the images … and the point-of-view for them … depends on an instant in time. Craig influences them by his choice of tools – which lenses, how much tilt, which settings – by his ability to navigate photography while navigating a kayak on an undulating Lake and by his decision of where and when to paddle onto the water. After that, the water, the reflections of the sky and land around it and the moment of movement make the final decision on what will be captured. All of that is why Craig ended up with thousands of images to review, revise and retain. “It’s sort of like looking for agates. You pick up a lot of rocks and most of them get thrown back.”
One should not get the impression, however, that luck weighs the heaviest on the scale for a great shot. “I have a fair amount of control,” Craig says, though he adds, “Obviously, every wave is gone in a fraction of a second.”
Even focusing becomes a challenge, Craig explains, with the high amount of magnification he employed for this project. “For about half of them (the images), I’m in a kayak, alternating between paddling into position, and picking up the camera to make the image.”
The efforts of scoping the right areas in the project equaled those of Craig’s earlier works. And that goes back to where this work began.
Like a surprising number of recent creative projects, the period of pandemic isolation helped to fuel this one. He found himself disheartened by the divisiveness of the prevailing atmosphere and foreboding thoughts of the ecological future. “I’ve always photographed beauty with the purpose of showing that there’s still something worth saving,” he says. “I felt like I needed to shift what I was doing, but I didn’t want to focus on the ugliness.”
Craig, as always, found refuge on the water. Focusing closely on the waves sparked renewed interest in their movement and reflections. He made note of, rather than just absorbed, the visual changes caused by the winds, the color influences of the land. The ephemeral beauty surprised Craig, who certainly did not expect a fresh view of the familiar waters.
“For 40 years, I’ve been paddling over the subject matter that now I’m so enthralled with.”
He wanted to capture the artwork in the water in a different way. “Visually what am I discovering,” he asked himself, “and technically, how am I going to do it?”
Paging through the book with Craig at your side – which I was lucky enough to do – you, too, would be awed by his memory for the where, when and what of each image. Equally impressive is the complexity of the technology that went into the capture, and the attention to the influences of shore and sky – like the waters echoing the white birch, the yellow leaves or the sky tinted red by smoke from distant wildfires. He reveals his influences – beyond those of the natural world – in pointing out images that recall for him calligraphy or the abstract paintings of Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko and Grand Portage artist George Morrison. From the photography realm, he invokes Wynn Bullock’s images of reflections in glass or Alfred Stieglitz’ wind-driven patterns.
His memories and comparisons are not the focal point of this artbook, though.. There are no descriptions or titles; each image stands on its own.
“I wanted you to be free,” Craig says of the viewer’s interpretations.
Something else will be new for Craig with this project, too. Rather than debuting the works in a Minnesota art gallery, “Light Waves” will be on exhibit through January 7, 2023, in Florida’s Palm Beach Photographic Centre museum, where Craig expects the patrons to consider the unusual wave art photos, and Lake Superior itself, somewhat exotic.
A fitting debut, then, since Craig himself rediscovered the Lake’s exotic nature in a whole new way – a discovery available to even those among us who believe we know Lake Superior so well.
Light Waves
Abstract Photographs
of Reflections from Lake Superior
by Craig Blacklock
intro by Daile Kaplan
Self-published
ISBN: 978-1-89247233-5
Hardcover $50
order through craigblacklock.art