IA2-10_16495 Richland Creek, Winter
Artist
David Ottenstein
(b. 1960)
Date2010
MediumPigment Ink Photographic Print
Dimensions16 x 20 in.
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LinePaul W. Zimmerman Purchase Fund
Object number2010.47
DescriptionDavid Ottenstein's photographs are shot with a large format film camera which produces four-by-five inch negatives that he scans and enhances to receive the desired effects. When Ottenstein read a "New York Times" article in 2004 on the decline of American agriculture, he decided to travel to Iowa and document these changes. He encountered a similar situation to his series on abandoned buildings in the Northeast. Since it was too difficult for small family farms to compete with agricultural corporations, the small farms were driven out of business. The families abandoned their farms, houses, silos and barns and nature subsequently took over. As a result, the classic image of the Midwest as seen in the paintings of Grant Wood (1891-1942) is rapidly disappearing.
When first looking at "Abandoned House, 510th Ave", one can sense the vastness of the sky and the endless landscape. They seem to be so vast that the frame of the photograph cannot confine them and they continue beyond.
Ottenstein states that "[my] photographs, first and foremost, are about beauty. In structures that most people agree are ugly, I see the opposite: surfaces rich in texture and patterns, bold forms molded by light. The translation of these objective facts into the seductive black and white tones of the photographic process is both the challenge and the excitement of creating these images."
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