Stone Quarry
Sometimes, the surest way to success comes through the straight line approach. Such was the case when, in 1998, wanting to photograph in a local stone quarry, I decided to take the direct route, and simply knocked on the door and asked. Success came in the form of a very gracious, open-ended invitation to photograph in the Luck Stone quarry, in Centreville, Virginia.
After a very thorough orientation of the site by the manager, I was given a safety briefing and list of do's and don'ts to adhere to. Thus began a series of intermittent visits to the quarry over the span of approximately 2 years.
With its geology so completely altered and exposed, the quarry was such an immense man-made landscape that I couldn't help but think of it as some natural geological wonder. Its size and depth was truly audacious. And laced as it was with a series of erector set structures connected by an intricate series of conveyor belts, its engineering was equally audacious.
Through this self-assignment, I exposed some eighty rolls of film, and in the process, largely free of time constraints, I practiced the study of my subject matter toward understanding it beyond its apparent physical attributes. This would prove beneficial to me later, in both my personal as well as professional work as I began to understand that design and the documentary approach need not be mutually exclusive.
Free of distraction, the study of this landscape became an immersive experience, within which I considered the actual and the abstract, the compliment of positive and negative space, and the myriad range of tone and texture in monotones of black, white, and gray.
