Art

Gallery Exhibit - Richard Colburn

Richard ColburnDescribing a region in photographs is as complex as making an authentic portrait of an extended family. It is something approached over time, with ever increasing understanding, looking for the salient bits and the understated yet revelatory details.  It requires persistence, curiosity and affection. These photographs of closed schools are one part of a portrait of the rural upper Midwest.

The project began in the iron mining region of northeastern Minnesota known as the Iron Range. The decline of the American steel industry hit the Iron Range and American Rust Belt cities severely. The changes apparent in the Iron Range communities are also apparent in other areas of the rural upper Midwest.

The most dramatic reflection of these economic changes is the decline in the population, specifically the population of young people and families. When there are fewer families fewer schools are required. In many cases, rural schools close due to financial pressures but in some cases it is simply that there aren't enough students. The City Auditor of Regan, North Dakota, explained, "17 students, 4 teachers, and a cook, it didn't make any sense." A school, once a dependable community institution, when closed, powerfully describes a community's prospects.

Bowdon School - Closed 2001, Bowden, North Dakota

The process of making these photographs is also important. Working with an 8" x 10" format view camera I intend to accomplish a photographic synesthesia. My original vision is presented as directly as possible. The prints are packed with minute detail and offer so much information as to make one's eyes ache. These are quintessential photographs in that "real" experience is transformed into an image bristling with all the characteristics of the medium. The physicality of the subject finds its analog in the visually visceral character of the print. The photograph is a distillation of being there. Achieving this palpable physicality is especially important to me.It is a characteristic unique to large format photography.

Richard Colburn

Last Updated: 11/18/11