Matt Dallos

Broken Ankle

2010-11-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

I do apologize for the lack of updates/information/photographs over the past few months. In early August I broke my ankle, so I've been completely unable to take any photographs or do any computer work.

Over the next few months I'll (hopefully) be healing and getting out to make new photographs, other than from my deck, where this one was taken this evening.

Adirondacks #8

2010-08-04T05:33:00.000-07:00

Curtis Lumber parking lot, twilight

Adirondacks #7

2010-08-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

Curtis Lumber parking lot, twilight

The Weight - Gillian Welch & Old Crow Medicine Show

2010-08-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

Adirondacks #6

2010-07-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

Curtis Lumber parking lot, sunset

Adirondacks #5

2010-07-29T05:41:00.000-07:00

Looking at cabins and trees from a gas station parking lot along Rt. 86

New Work: Roadside Sublime

2010-07-29T05:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I posted a new portfolio of work on my site. Though the project is still in progress, I thought I would post what I have so far to get some feedback. Here's a link: Roadside Sublime

Adirondacks #4

2010-07-28T04:22:00.000-07:00

Piseco Lake

Adirondacks #3

2010-07-27T05:20:00.000-07:00

Eighth Lake Campground

Adirondacks #2

2010-07-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

Evening light along Rt. 86 east of Saranac Lake, looking at the Adirondack Park Agency Regional Headquarters.

(See Adirondack post below for more background information)

Adirondacks

2010-07-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a trip up to the Adirondack Park in New York. Though I wasn't there primarily to take photographs, I did get a few chances to explore with my camera. If you have never been to the Adirondacks before, I highly recommend a visit. Not because they are beautiful, which they are, but because of the unique human-nature relationship present. The six-million acres of the park are not a wilderness. People live there, work there, play golf and mini-golf there. However, because of the imposition of regional planning over the landscape, the endless blight of commercial development and exploitation that has destroyed so much of the United States has been, to a degree, corralled.

Heading west on Rt. 86 out of Lake Placid, you pass a Price Chopper grocery store, complete with sprawling parking lot glowing in the evening light. Only a moment later, as you enter the forest, you pass a yellow and blue sign stating you are entering the McKenzie Mountain wilderness area. I have yet to wrap my head around exactly what the Adirondacks as a landscape have to offer in terms of guidance to the rest of the nation, though that 30 seconds of driving says quite a bit about circumspection with commercial development.

Over the next week or so I'll be sharing some of these images via this site.

Sketch #37

2010-07-09T20:25:00.000-07:00

Flowering Tree at Night in a Motel Parking Lot

Sketch #36

2010-06-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

Public Library, Wellington, NZ

Sketch #35

2010-06-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

Highway 33 overpass, Athens, Ohio

Quote: Wendell Berry

2010-06-03T05:38:00.000-07:00

"I am a conservationist and a farmer, a wilderness advocate and an agrarian. I am in favor of the world's wildness, not only because I like it, but also because I think it is necessary to the world's life and to our own. For the same reason, I want to preserve the natural health and integrity of the world's economic landscapes, which is to say that I want the world's farmers, ranchers, and foresters to live in stable, locally adapted, resource-preserving communities, and I want them to thrive."
p.67 Bringing it to the Table

Sketch #34

2010-05-31T14:07:00.001-07:00

Sketch #33

2010-05-26T08:11:00.001-07:00

Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia

Sketch #32

2010-05-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

Oliver Farms, Nittany Valley, Pennsylvania

Quote: Paul Shepard

2010-05-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

"The cosmography of tribal peoples is marked by a degree of humility toward the natural world that is lacking in civilized society. Among the principles of the Koyukon worldview, as described by anthropologist Richard Nelson, are these two: 'Each animal knows way more than you do' and 'The physical environment is spiritual, conscious, and subject to rules of respectful behavior.'"
The Tender Carnivore & The Sacred Game, p.63

Virginia

2010-05-02T17:43:00.000-07:00

Last week, on my way to West Virginia, I spent an afternoon checking out Massanutten Mountain and Skyline Drive. A few shots from the Drive:

Sketch #31

2010-04-23T11:26:00.001-07:00

West Coast Forest, South Island, New Zealand

2006 NPR Interview with John McPhee

2010-04-18T07:17:00.000-07:00

Sketch #30

2010-04-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

Sketch #28 + #29

2010-04-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

Sketch #27

2010-03-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

Lake Winola

Sketch #26

2010-03-12T07:46:00.000-08:00

Sangre de Cristo Mountains, San Luis Valley, Colorado

Quote: James Howard Kunstler

2010-03-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

"In a culture that views ecology as the antithesis to economy, it is difficult to think clearly about how we live in relation to where we are." The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape, p. 249

Sketch #25

2010-03-01T16:42:00.001-08:00

MacKenzie Basin, NZ

1978 NPR Interview with John McPhee

2010-02-23T13:56:00.000-08:00

This is a NPR interview with John McPhee from 1978. I thought it was revealing to hear his thoughts at an early point in his career, before some of his most popular books were written.

Sketch #24

2010-02-17T18:09:00.001-08:00

Tussey Mountain, Pennsylvania

Quote: Paul Shepard, The Tender Carnivore & The Sacred Game

2010-02-16T19:21:00.000-08:00

"More humility is needed in our perspective. The combination of species rarity and individuality based on a highly specialized life cycle and exceedingly complex brain is new and dangerous, and may not succeed; indeed its extinction is already threatening. Most kinds of animals are probably already as intelligent as it is possible to be in their particular niches; further refinement would simply diminish their survival rates. It is both erroneous and wrong philosophically, I think, to assume that all creatures want to be men or that human consciousness is the cosmic pass toward and through which all life must make its way." The Tender Carnivore & The Sacred Game, p. 103

Sketch #22 + #23

2010-02-04T07:44:00.000-08:00

Jacks Mountain, Pennsylvania

near Boalsburg, Pennsylvania

Quote: Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams

2010-02-04T07:35:00.000-08:00

"The cold view to take of our future is that we are therefore headed for extinction in a universe of impersonal chemical, physical, and biological laws. A more productive, certainly more engaging view, is that we have the intelligence to grasp what is happening, the composure not to be intimidated by its complexity, and the courage to take steps that may bear no fruit in our lifetimes." Arctic Dreams, p. 52

Sketch #21

2010-02-01T18:12:00.000-08:00

The limestone beneath these fields is two kilometers thick.

Sketch #20

2010-01-25T19:05:00.001-08:00

Indian Caverns, Pennsylvania

Sketch #17 + #18 + #19

2010-01-24T10:37:00.000-08:00

An afternoon in the Mackenzie Basin.

Quote: Dr. Roderick Nash

2010-01-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

"A historical perspective is frequently kind to the reputation of radicals...The men who dumped a million dollars' worth of tea into the Boston Harbor on the night of December 16, 1773, were reviled as hooligans."

Dr. Roderick Nash, author of "Wilderness and the American Mind," in the introduction to "Tree Spiker."

Tree Spiker: From Earth First! to Lowbagging: My Struggles in Radical Environmental Action, was written by Mike Roselle and Josh Mahan. I have yet to read it, but it sounds interesting.

Sketch #16 + #17

2010-01-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

Pennsylvania Farm Show

2010-01-14T17:23:00.000-08:00

I spent the day at the Pennsylvania Farm show searching around for some subjects for a new series I'm working on. I didn't find what I was looking for, but the day was entertaining. Have you ever seen 1,000 pounds of butter? I have.

A week of compost...

2010-01-13T11:59:00.000-08:00

...sitting on my kitchen counter.

Sketch #15

2010-01-10T15:12:00.001-08:00

Mt. Washington, New Hampshire

Sketch #14

2010-01-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

San Luis Valley, Colorado

Curbside composting

2010-01-05T09:19:00.001-08:00

This morning two men wearing bright orange hopped out of a white flatbed truck, placing a brown plastic garbage can with wheels in my driveway. So what? Boring news. Well, this garbage can is labeled in bold white letters “Organic waste only,” making it a bit more exciting. My local borough is starting up a pilot program for curbside organic food waste collection, claiming it to be the first east of the Mississippi. From a recent garbage study borough workers discovered more than 30% of waste being taken to the landfill could be composted, an incredible amount of material that would be better diverted to a composting program rather than rotting in an overflowing landfill.

Although I have composted at home for the last 18 months, I’m thrilled by the idea of this program, and I’m curious to see the response from my non-composting neighbors. I have heard complaints of “money wasting liberal policies” and of separating organic food waste being too much of an inconvenience. These arguments confuse me. I fail to see how dealing with the waste we all create in a responsible way can be considered a political issue. Soil fertility and garbage dumps are not partisan topics. And if you are unwilling to take a few extra minutes to separate food waste from garbage then I’m not sure you deserve a seat at the table. Willingness to take responsibility for the disposal of the waste we have created speaks volumes on issues of personal responsibility and community respect. Even though at this point the program is not compulsory, I hope someday there will be a fine for those who refuse to participate.

The program will last for a year, serving as a pilot not only for my town but also other areas looking to start curbside organic waste collection.

Sketch #13

2010-01-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Rt. 45, Nittany Valley, Pennsylvania

Interview with Simon Roberts (via lensculture / A Photo Student)

2010-01-04T09:51:00.000-08:00

Great interview with Simon Roberts of Motherland and We English fame.

Simon Roberts: Lens Culture Conversations with Photographers from Jim Casper on Vimeo.

Sketch #12

2009-12-22T14:36:00.000-08:00

Sketch #11

2009-12-20T13:40:00.000-08:00

Field outside of Fox Glacier Township, New Zealand

Sketch #10

2009-12-15T11:15:00.001-08:00

Top of Mt. Washington, White Mountains, New Hampshire

Snowy Night

2009-12-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

Last night around 11:00pm, while I was sitting in my house reading a book, I looked outside to notice it had started to snow. Something about the light and the empty streets caught my eye so I decided to put on some warm clothes, grab my camera, and walk through my neighborhood to make some pictures.

Sketch #9

2009-12-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

A late addition to my Park Forest Village series.

Sketch #8

2009-12-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

Clearcut—Marlborough Sounds, NZ

Bicycle Film Festival 2009

2009-12-01T11:28:00.000-08:00

I do wish the Bicycle Film Festival was coming to State College this year. Even if you're not into bikes, check out the trailer below.

Sketch #7

2009-11-29T16:35:00.000-08:00

Rest stop—near Blenheim, NZ

Sketch #6

2009-11-27T10:15:00.000-08:00

This was taken exactly 366 days ago, on the night of Thanksgiving. I had been eying these trees for some time, but I needed the parking lot to be empty. It was originally shot as part of a triptych; this is only the middle panel.

Sketch #5

2009-11-24T14:24:00.000-08:00

Photographed in Wellington, NZ. If I ever find myself in Wellington with a few extra weeks to spare, I'll spend that time photographing the trees/shrubs that people have planted around their homes. I almost missed my flight home because I wanted to make the taxi driver stop 50 times to let me take a picture.

Stone River: The Passion of Jon Piasecki

2009-11-21T09:55:00.000-08:00

I caught this video over on the Orion Magazine website. It's a bit long, but worth it.

Stone River: The Passion of Jon Piasecki from Orion Magazine on Vimeo.

Sketch #4

2009-11-19T10:44:00.000-08:00

Photographed near the harbor in Wellington, New Zealand. I took this on the first day of my trip. When I passed through Wellingon on my way home, I went for another walk to this area and found that the tag on the stairs had already been painted over.

Sketch #3

2009-11-13T15:50:00.000-08:00

Mackenzie Basin, New Zealand. A new take on the mountains with leading lines.

In the Works

2009-11-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

Here are a few images from a series I worked on this summer. I thought I would share a few examples from it, even though it isn't anywhere close to being finished.

Sketch #2

2009-11-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in this post, I'm going to be digging back through my archives and pulling out some single shots that would have otherwise never seen the light of day. See the original post for some more info.

Flowering Tulip Tree.

This is one of the shots that led to my Park Forest Village series. I spent a few days riding my bike around my town pulling a trailer filled with camera gear and a ladder. For a few months I had known that I wanted to photograph the landscape around houses, but I was having a hard time figuring out what exactly I wanted to photograph. The few shots that I took while riding around town helped me to refine what I wanted to shoot, working out a few bugs before I actually started working on Park Forest Village.

Sketch #1

2009-11-03T10:06:00.000-08:00

Since my switch to digital I have been taking many more photographs. I'm noticing that ideas for future projects are coalescing out of these extra photographs. I'm starting to consider them a bit like a sketch. They tend to stick in my mind because they are spur of the moment. Something caught my eye and I just aim my camera in that direction and snap away. No thought. No explanation. No larger theme.

I'm going to start posting a few of these shots. I'll label them all under the category sketches.

The first one, taken earlier this year in along the road to Arthur's Pass Village, New Zealand, was shot during a knock-you-over-it's-so-windy rain storm.

West

2009-11-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of October I headed west to the Rockies for a few weeks. Below are a few shots from that trip. I didn't accomplish much photography "work", but I did discover a number of places that I would love to return to develop a project.

Indian Caverns

2009-10-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

Indian Caverns is a tourist cave located in the town of Franklinville, PA. This display case, filled with Native American afrtifacts, was located in the back of the cave, near a cavern filled with multicolored lights and a row of now stubby rock formations that were broken to provide easier access to this room.

People

2009-10-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

A few months back I switched up the photography equipment that I use. I now only carry one lens (a normal, ~45mm) with me, something that has really simplified my picture making process. At first I felt limited, but as I have become more familiar with this setup I have started to enjoy the very natural perspective on the world that this lens provides.

This afternoon I was going through some of my recent work and noticed that, since switching equipment, I have photographed more people from far away. The people in the photographs are very small compared to their surroundings, but I kind of like the impact they create. They feel natural to me, as if the are just going about their daily business.

This certainly isn’t a ground breaking discovery, but it is something that will at least cross my mind when I am photographing people.

Here are a few examples:
(From top to bottom: Family throwing rocks at Fish, Tractor Parade, My Dad wolf watching in Colorado, Scott and Kota along a Pennsylvania stream)

Snow!

2009-10-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

It's snowing in Central Pennsylvania, making this is the earliest recorded snowfall for the area. The above photograph was taken before the storm really ramped up. Some locations ended up with over 6 inches.

Hey, Hot Shot! Contender (again)

2009-10-15T06:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was selected as a "contender" on Jen Beckman's Hey, Hot Shot! blog. For this round of the contest I submitted my latest series, I Want the Red One. (complete portfolio). Here is a link to the entry on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog.

The folks over at Hey, Hot Shot! have been kind enough to feature my work from my New Zealand series on their blog in the past. (link)

America's Best Idea?

2009-10-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

Arches National Park, 2009

Like many people, I’ve had the opportunity over the past few days to watch a bit of Ken Burns’ most recent work, America’s Best Idea, a documentary about our National Parks. I have to admit that I’m not impressed with what is being presented. The research is very well done, but I had high hopes that Burns would take a more inclusive look at the parks to see how they fit into the conservation, protection and destruction of land in the majority of our country that is not a national park.

(Mark Hobson, over at The Landscapist, has recently posted an entry that deals with the same topic. It’s worth a read.)

I think it is important to note that the ideas presented in this documentary are reiterations of entrenched ideas that dominate our nation’s views of land protection, so my comments are meant as a critique on what our national parks stand for and the problems they have caused, not the film itself.

I feel that our national parks, as spectacular as they are, have been harmful toward any effort being made to create a more sustainable relationship with the land. A National Park is not a landscape. It is a destination, a show piece. Our National Parks are protected museum pieces that we set aside because they are grand, scenic or unusual. There is nothing inherently wrong with protecting, or even praising these oddities. The problem is that our National Parks have created a false sense of protection as the other 98% of our land has been logged, drilled, mined, paved, developed, factory farmed, sprawled— in other words, completely ravaged.

This other 98% is where we spend our lives; it is what should be important. But, in general, we pay no attention to its treatment because it is an everyday working landscape that contains people and their marks (gasp!). It is, in other words, not special. By focusing on preserving small, isolated oddities (our parks), we have failed to enact protections of any kind that address the condition of the land where we spend our lives.

(I do understand that there are exceptions, e.g. the Adirondacks, but in no way can it be argued that the dominate targets in protecting land in this country deal with real places.)

As an example, take the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachians: a repeating series of fertile valleys divided by parallel walls of stone ridges running from southern New York to northern Alabama. The valleys have been completely developed, creating a quilt of farm fields, small towns, limestone quarries, sprawl and even a few cities. The ridges, being steep and rocky, have never been developed and exist in a mostly wild state.

This is a real landscape, not a show piece. And, up until very recently, this landscape represented a somewhat harmonious relationship between our actions and the land. It was an ideal representation of Jefferson’s “Middle State.” The land was certainly altered and used, but it wasn’t destroyed. However, no protection was given to this landscape. There is now nothing to keep sprawl from eating up rich farmland, or to keep the infrastructure from commercial wind turbines from fragmenting the forest along the ridge tops.

Where I feel our grand idea of National Parks has ultimately failed us, by protecting show pieces and excluding man all together, is by shelving the idea of protecting real landscapes. The dominate idea of land protection has been to exclude ourselves. Not only is this view harmful to ecological interests, it also shows that we have zero respect for how we treat our home.

A landscape, such as Ridge and Valley, could be transformed into a much more livable and ecologically successful place through a wide variety of actions that would protect the integrity of the land, create a place where people actually want to be, while still allowing for the development of resources in a manner that respects the landscape and its inhabitants. Logging, for example, could be limited to selective cuts and skidding done only with horses. Enforced and concrete growth boundaries would limit sprawl into the surrounding agrarian land, keeping farm land prices affordable to allow new generations of farmers to work the land.

This view — with locally respective variations—could be repeated for nearly every landscape in our country.

Can you imagine your home landscape treated with respect? How could we change the land that surrounds our home to be more respectful of what creates a quality life for ourselves and still protect the ecological balance of the land?

I want the Red One

2009-09-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

I posted a new portfolio, I want the Red One, on my website. Click here to see it.

New Project

2009-09-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

I spent the last few days shooting at a large Antique Machinery show. I'll be posting the new images on my website in the next few days. For me, this event was a test. I wanted to go there and spend some time trying to make engaging photographs of something I simply would have not photographed a year ago.

I'll post another entry when the photographs have been uploaded.

Hey, Hot Shot! Contender

2009-09-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

This April I was a "contender" on Jen Beckman's Hey, Hot Shot! blog. I submitted my series on The South Island of New Zealand (complete portfolio). Here is a link to the entry. Though I did not end up being selected as a Hot Shot, it was still an honor to have my work shown there.

The Hey, Hot Shot! blog is a great place to check out the work of some great photographers.

Doc Watson — Deep River Blues Solo

2009-09-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

Doc Watson with a guitar. Need I say more?

Agri-culture

2009-09-09T10:24:00.001-07:00

Another photograph from Ag Progress Days while on a hay ride through a corn field. Contrast this with the Agri-death machine in the previous post.

From whom—or what—do you buy your food?

Agri-death

2009-09-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

That this machine is in involved in our food supply is a scary fact. Photographed at Ag Progress Days, "Pennsylvania's largest outdoor agricultural exposition".