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Gained over years spent in the studio, I came to Weir Farm expecting
to apply my way of working to the New England landscape. I grew
up not far from Weir Farm in Trumbull, Connecticut. In the 1950's,
that landscape was essentially this landscape. New England
stone walled woods, small farms and apple orchards were my playgrounds
as a child. By the mid-1960's these playgrounds had become "the
suburbs," as Trumbull gave up its rural character to cookie
cutter capes, ranches and split-levels.
When I became seriously dedicated to photography as an art form,
it was the medium that captured my imagination. My search was
through process. This magic of capturing an exact image on light
sensitive metallic salts propelled me on an extraordinary journey
of discovery. For over twenty years I have worked exclusively
in the studio because it was there that I could control the process
and let my imagination direct the journey. The results have been
wonderful.
And so I took these results, this method of working, and went
to Weir Farm expecting to just plug it in. It didn't happen. I
found myself frustrated by the lack of control. I was using a
twelve-foot camera obscura to do large pinhole images, but the
wind shook the camera during the long time exposures. I wanted
to develop the images on site to get a feel for how they looked,
as I did in the studio, but it was either too hot or too cold
to use my chemicals. I wanted the light to come from a different
direction, but the sun was stubborn.
The landscape was not to be had on my terms and so eventually,
I accepted its terms and went where it demanded. This work, these
soft focused pinhole images, are the results of those demands.
They are also, strangely, the images of my memories. They look
to me like nothing so much as my mind's eye view of a childhood
spent here, in these New England woods.
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Thomas Mezzanotte
has been exploring the potentials of the photographic medium for
over thirty years. He was educated at the University of Bridgeport
where he became the director of the Carlson Gallery in the late
eighties. He teaches in schools across Connecticut as a Connecticut
Commission on the Arts Master Teaching Artist. His work has been
exhibited in galleries and museums across the country. Last year
he had one-person shows at New York University, New York, NY,
and The Silvermine Guild Gallery, New Canaan, CT, and was included
in shows at The Santa Fe College of Art, Santa Fe, NM; Elizabeth
Leach Gallery, Portland, OR; and The George Eastman House, Rochester,
NY. Mr. Mezzanotte has won numerous grants and awards including
two Connecticut Commission on the Arts individual artist grants.
His work was featured in the book The Art of Enhanced Photography
by Rockport Press and was published this past summer in View Camera
magazine.
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