“I have spent the last two years working, living, and shooting on two islands on opposite sides of the globe. In 2016, I lived for ten months on a small fisherman’s island off of Hong Kong called Cheung Chau, after which I returned home to the coast of Maine and began shooting the second half of the project on the island of Vinalhaven. I chose to approach the islands as coupled macrocosms of change, isolated communities continually being sculpted and reformed by the tides of industry and technology. Both island communities sustained themselves over past centuries with their fishing fleets, only to experience in recent decades declines in fish population and a burgeoning demand for island real estate. Combined with an influx of tourism from the mainland, these two islands have struggled to maintain and redevelop what it is that defines their sense of islandness.
Shot using a 5×7 view camera and exposed on individual aluminum plates in the field, the wet collodion process requires the photographer to sensitize, shoot, and develop each plate individually on location in the span of a few minutes. No two plates are the same as there are many variables that can change in a matter of seconds, lending each image a unique look and retaining an element of surprise for the photographer as well as the viewer. I hauled my darkroom, chemistry, and camera gear across oceans and up hills in a variety of wagons and push carts, attracting stares and questions on both sides of the globe, all the while trading stories of the way photography used to be for stories of the way these islands once were. I sought to capture this transition, honor these stories, and document the integration of the historical elements of these places with the inevitable development that comes with a broadening influence from the mainland and an increasingly connected globe.”
Andrew Crane is an American photographer (b. 1991) from coastal Maine. He received a B.F.A. from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2015. Hailing from a background in the study of classical philosophy and literature, his photographs explore the perambulating relationship between human beings and the spaces they inhabit and shape. His work has been featured in exhibitions across the United States and overseas.
Andrew Crane
Atipodean Isles
November 15, 2017 – January 13, 2018
PhoPa Gallery
132 Washington Ave Portland, ME 04101
www.phopagallery.com
© Andrew Crane: Atipodean Isles
© Andrew Crane: Atipodean Isles
© Andrew Crane: Atipodean Isles
© Andrew Crane: Atipodean Isles
