A Certain Sentimentality in the Suburban West

2020

A Certain Sentimentality in the Suburban West is a series focusing on the beauty and activeness of light in suburban and domestic settings. Using the West as a backdrop for aesthetic inspiration, A Certain Sentimentality explores subtle and often missed details that give suburban neighborhoods in Northern Nevada their unique charm.

Artist Statement

I have been in a love affair with light since I can remember. And I mean that in the most romanticized way, I do. Growing up in the west, surrounded by a bowl of mountains, I lived in their valley and spent much of my time appreciating how when the light hit the Sierra Nevadas in the right way... I could swear they looked just like a watercolor painting. I still feel that way, and find myself often caught off guard by the beauty of both desert landscapes and western suburbs and their interactions with light.

Part of my fondness for light is its elusiveness and transience. Special lighting happens once, and then it never happens again. Constantly moving, running, changing, shifting — you’re lucky if you get the chance to sit and absorb the feelings romantic light can give you. Many times we are too busy; inundated with life and its stressors to stop and appreciate something as simple as the cast over the hills as we drive home, or sun peaking through the trees into our kitchen in the morning. A great deal of the time, light moves on before we even get a chance to notice it. When we do manage to find this light, and appreciate it, most of us get a sentimental feeling; difficult to describe, but universal.

The moment when light makes you sigh, “Wow! Look at that!” That’s the moment and the feeling I sought to capture in this book. I want to try and grab the light, catch it, hold it, and preserve its sentimentality for as long as I can. I want others to feel like I’ve caught light for them, I want them to see this light printed and whisper to themselves, “Wow! Look at that”. I want to convey that light is alive, always active. Even the way we describe light is active, we use words like; hit, beam, strike, glare, bounce, catch, move, shift. Mostly though, I’m fascinated with light’s ability to make us feel something.

Photography that captures sentimental moments is nothing new. Pictorialism photographers did this in the 19th century, capturing soft feelings through the lens and demanding the world see the beauty they saw. Asking the world to consider the power the camera has to convey a glimpse of a unique moment. Alas, it is not the 1860’s. I have nothing to prove, and only sentiments to share. The aim of this book is to recontextualize the values of pictorialism, provide a tangible testament of my love for light, and thank the western landscapes for becoming a part of how I record the world.

Through this, A Certain Sentimentality in the Suburban West was born. My wish for you, my reader, is moving forward you’ll catch a glimpse of the light in the hills, or the sunspots in your kitchen.