Grays the Mountain Sends

September 17, 2013 10:40 PM

Bryan Schutmaat takes photographs of the American West, Heartland, and rural America.
posted by klangklangston (11 comments total)

When the city and everyday life get to be too much, I jump in my car and drive west.

Traveling through the small towns and open spaces never fails to fill me with both a sense of freedom and easing of pressure and a feeling of melancholy for the semi-prosperous pasts that will probably never come again.

These photos captured my experiences and feelings perfectly.

Thanks for sharing klangklangston.
posted by 1066 at 11:03 PM on September 17, 2013

His Western Frieze series of images is so evocative of growing up in Wyoming that I hyperventilated a little looking at them. I swear to god we stopped here for lunch on our way to Casper a hundred times.

This is a great find -- thanks for posting, klang.
posted by scody at 11:08 PM on September 17, 2013

Echoes of Stephen Shore. From idealized landscape to tombstone.
posted by Lorin at 11:13 PM on September 17, 2013

These are stunning - thank you!
posted by Salamander at 5:04 AM on September 18, 2013

Wow, thanks.
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 6:02 AM on September 18, 2013

I wasn't that wowed by the photographs, but I think that's in part because he successfully captured his subjects in them. I kept on thinking, "Yeah, I've seen that before...all....the....time." So kudos?
posted by Atreides at 6:29 AM on September 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

I want to like these more because he is v. technically competent, but i wonder if this new topographic, post shore style of the american west has reached a dead end, even Adams who might end up having the furthest reach, pushed outside this aesthetic with his recent photographs of oregan coastlines, or his photos of cottonwoods from 10 years or so. this is a little borrowed, a little derritave, a little dated, and really quite good.
posted by PinkMoose at 6:49 AM on September 18, 2013

Gorgeous. Every frame is just gorgeous. Thanks for sharing.
posted by photoslob at 8:42 AM on September 18, 2013

"but i wonder if this new topographic, post shore style of the american west has reached a dead end, even Adams who might end up having the furthest reach, pushed outside this aesthetic with his recent photographs of oregan coastlines,"

I'd say a couple things here: One, that Shore and Adams don't do nearly as many portraits as Schutmaat, who focuses a lot more on the people of the West (though Shore was never really a good fit there, what with his extensive other works).

Further, I'm not sure that the New Topographic style can ever really hit a dead end; I think that the genre is too broad, and pretty much includes any shots of the West where people have impacted the landscape. I think that it might be a dead end as a descriptor, especially this far out, but taking pictures of the rural West will remain compelling for as long as people live there. It's kinda like saying that after (the other) Adams, Western landscape is a dead end.
posted by klangklangston at 9:53 AM on September 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

Box TVs, box monitors, box buildings and box churches, box picture frames and box furniture, box tables and box restaurant bars. Man; takes me back to when I was living in rural OK... thanks.
posted by buzzman at 3:52 PM on September 18, 2013

Klnag:

four things

a) Shore does a huge number of portraits, and much of his american work are portraits in absentia, which this is.
b) shore is never a good fit anywhere.
c) fair cop.
d) there is somethign about lived expereince.
posted by PinkMoose at 5:29 PM on September 18, 2013