Midwest Cliché - Part Three

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Midwest Cliché #3/Roadside Attraction
© Larry Torno, 2009

There's a Midwest saying that goes something like this, "You can climb to the second story and see farther than you ever saw before - and still see nothing."

I don't agree. I see something in just about everything in this landscape; the breeze blowing through the tall grasses, the gentle curve of the empty road, a singular road sign, the evening clouds, and the fact that I'm the only one anywhere near this location.

It's the Midwest at its best.

Midwest Cliché - Part Two

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Midwest Cliché #2/Billbored
© Larry Torno, 2009

Yes, I know I spelled Billboard wrong, but I did that on purpose.

This abandoned advertising board is about as beautiful a piece of nostalgia as I could find. The piecemeal construction of telephone poles and sheets of plywood, gives it as much character as a 90-year old man's wrinkled face. One can only imagine the countless messages that it carried, the eras of cars that passed by it or the kids who played in the parking lot and threw rocks at it.

Today, it's a staple of the Midwest landscape.

Midwest Cliché - Part One

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Midwest Cliché #1/The Barn Identity
© Larry Torno, 2009

When you think of the Midwest, and you're not from around here, you think of the family farm, that old familiar barn and Grandpa's rusty old truck that you learned to drive at age 13. Right?

Not me. I grew up in the city and consider it a day trip to drive the 20 minutes it takes to get to the "country". But for some reason, the Midwest has a reputation for nostalgic times and movie-scene family life, so that's what this photo series is all about.

Use your imagination as you view these memories found on the rural roads, just a stone's throw from our metropolis. As the saying goes, "We're not in Kansas anymore."

Grand Canyon - Part Four

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Pink Clouds
© Larry Torno, 2005

The light in the Canyon is constantly changing. The sun rolls across the landscape and frequent, rumbling storms come and go; leaving mist and rainbows.

On this particular evening, the setting sun caught the tips of two peaks, casting a pink glow on them and the clouds above. Within minutes, it was gone and another part of the Canyon was shifting colors.

Grand Canyon - Part Three

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Tree at Desert View Drive
© Larry Torno, 2005

When you're in a place like the Grand Canyon, the best way to experience it is with your eyes wide open to see everything. You don't have to look down into the cavern to find something beautiful . . . it can be as simple as a roadside composition of tree limbs and an eroding stack of rocks.

Grand Canyon - Part Two

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Cloud Over Lipan Point
© Larry Torno, 2005

Lipan Point is a stop on the 26-mile Desert View Drive that loops the South Rim of the Canyon. After hiking and muling for 4 days, we chose to ride in an air-conditioned vehicle for a change.

While at first glance this appears to be just a cloud-over-the-Canyon image, if you look towards the bottom right-hand corner of the photograph, you can see the Colorado River winding through the landscape. This reference point will give you an idea as to the massive scale of the cloud overhead and the completely unobstructed, panoramic view of the Canyon.

Grand Canyon - Part One

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45 Minutes from the Rim
© Larry Torno, 2005

In the fall of 2005, my wife and I treated ourselves to a quiet, off-season, week in the Grand Canyon. It was in early October and the summer crowds were long gone. Our time was divided into 2 days of getting to know the area, a 2-day mule ride to the bottom of the Canyon (with an overnight stay at the Phantom Ranch), and 2 days of recovery and decadence in our luxury suite at the El Tovar Hotel.

I took the usual sunset photos and vacation memory images but walked away with a collection of personal observations that I will share in the next 4 weeks.

45 Minutes from the Rim was taken on Day Two of the mule ride, when we arrived at our last rest stop of the 5-hour journey up from the Canyon floor. The absolute stillness and isolation of the area and the last chance at scenery not visible from above, prompted this image.

You don’t think of the Grand Canyon as a place of trees, but there were many that I stopped to photograph. This one, with the bare branches reaching back into the Canyon, reminded me of a sculpture with twisted, outstretched arms straining to their maximum length.

Paved Paradise - Part Four

Light Field
© Larry Torno, 2007

Sometimes the shot is not OF the parking lot but what's IN the parking lot.

This scene appeared on one of my Sunday Art Adventures. I was so taken by the location that I cut across several lanes of oncoming traffic and shot the image without getting out of my car. I couldn't wait to capture what I was seeing.

A fine art photographer friend of mine commented on the photo with the following accolades:

You are right!! It is just wonderfully seen. Edward Weston, my hero, once wrote, that the difference between the good and the great photograph is what he called "seeing plus." Only a handful of photographers can even define "seeing plus" and that is why 99.9% of all pictures are what Ansel Adams called "a nice record of something that exists.!!!!!!! "Seeing plus" is the hidden treasure that you must find to elevate above the masses - You have arrived!!

Care to take a guess as to what the hidden treasure was that Bob saw in this image?

Here's the missing sentence from his comment . . . The wire coming back in at the bottom is just the kicker!!

Paved Paradise - Part Three

Parking Lot Study
© Larry Torno, 2007

I found this church parking lot in St. Charles, Missouri. I'm not sure when the accidental stain happened but it attracted me immediately. It made me think about artists like Morris Louis and Jackson Pollock who purposely spilled paint on their canvases.

Someone once commented that the white lines in this photo looked like a Christmas tree. I'm always fascinated by the visions people find in art.

Paved Paradise - Part Two

In, Out, K
© Larry Torno, 2007

A newly paved and painted parking lot was the inspiration for this photograph. The afternoon sun provided the intense contrast and the simple line structure formed a great composition.

I worked for several years at The Saint Louis Art Museum and I'm always recalling the master painters as inspiration in my work. In this case, the bold, gestural strokes of Franz Kline were in the back of my mind when I created this image.