Black Range 1

 The death of my dear friend Ian Lobb is still having a great deal of effect on me despite the number of weeks passing. I have an image from Ian's Black Range series in my front hallway. I go past it every day and not only does it make me think of him but of the wonderful work he made in the Black Range State Park.

I travelled there in 2018, in the hope of seeing some of the sites Ian might have photographed. While I found nothing similar to Ian's images, I believe a fire that went through the area may have pretty much obliterated areas where he photographed (I found out later there were fires on New Year's Eve of 2005 / 2006).

The landscape I found was both harsh and beautiful. There was the evidence of fire everywhere with blackened trees in abundance and a general feeling of a harsh and 'abrasive' space, full of compositional 'difficulties'.

I revisited some of the digital images I made in 2018...

I am not completely satisfied with them, but they are a testament to the 'toughness' of the landscape. Difficult compositional elements, tonal ranges and generally chaotic layouts made photography quite challenging. I have made the images relatively high contrast to reflect the feeling of the landscape.

Black Range State Park  2018