about curve of the Earth
Here is a different way to look at landscapes. Imagine looking at a schoolroom globe. How the land and water on the globe stick to the round surface.
In 1998 I printed a black and white sunrise photograph of the seacoast of North Carolina. The clear atmosphere that morning and crisp-definition described in the print reminded me of images I’ve seen throughout my life of the Earth made by astronauts in orbit. I grew up during the Apollo era. Something made me start to rotate the print to imitate the delirious, vertiginous quality of the those images from orbit. Something clicked for me. I became curious about where North Carolina was on the globe.
I have been working on this project, curve of the Earth, since 2001. My intent with this series of color landscapes is to visually describe where a place is based on its latitude. Boston, for example, lies at latitude 42 degrees North of the Equator. The camera is pointing directly East for sunrises or directly West for sunsets. I then tilt the camera to accurately represent how the horizon is inclined at a given latitude with the conceit that magnetic north is "up". I have designed a tripod-mounted device that combines a compass with an angle finder. By revisiting the same location at different times of year it is also possible to capture the movement of the Sun between Solstice and Equinox as it slides North and South along the horizon.
The curve of the Earth series currently spans latitudes of the Northern hemisphere from 18º in the Caribbean to 51º in Europe. So far there are two islands, 3 countries and six states represented. With each new photograph I fill in, with a small swath of straight-line horizon, the greater circle of the whole globe. I hope someday to be able to complete the puzzle I've begun.
When you look at these, just imagine the horizons continuing on past the frame, farther North and South and beginning to arc.