Folk Music, my ongoing photo series, is a nod to hobbyist wildlife photography - my earliest introduction to photography. It is a practice often dismissed by artists for its shortcomings in the creative department, which is an angle I quickly aligned with as I began exploring new subject matters. Several years later, I was moved by the realization that the genre captivates its participants for, in fact, a very good reason. The image, in this case, is not artistic expression, but rather the vehicle for a grounding experience. Sometimes cigarettes bring people outside, but it is the fresh air that brings them back for another.
While wildlife photography traditionally aims for documentary neutrality, these images are more distinctly observational. By taking most images from too far away, and cropping excessively as a result, I highlight the distance between myself and the animals with a fuzzy, compressed look. This informality indicates a more sincere admiration for wildlife, rather than doing it for sport.
Additionally, the series leans into a handful of clichés - tourist destinations and safari animals - subjecting itself to perceived triteness. These choices do render some images common and unspectacular, yet they make the cut. For those familiar, it’s tempting to label one of Iceland’s most over-photographed waterfalls as less meaningful than its own parking lot. Seeing past a landscape’s commodification, however, stands up to the ego and allows innocence to prevail.
Initially edited and conceptualized in 2024
Photographs from 2014 - present
All animals were photographed in their natural habitat