southwesttexas

Jeremy Green “Crescendo” 12/8/22

All Ansel Adams had to do was explore, be in the right place at the right time, expertly compose & expose, and then process as far as his technique could go to portray his artistic impressions. This is a 70mm short telephoto slice of a vast landscape that was before me one late afternoon in the Big Bend. I don’t describe myself as a landscape photographer; but I do explore, set myself up for good fortune, and use my acquired skills.

Jeremy Green “Photography Strictly Prohibited” 9/19/22

At the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas there was quite a bit of pressure not to take pictures of any kind anywhere. On the daylong guided tour, we were led through the exhibits by a KGB-like docent who always hovered closely. I’m not inclined to flout authority except maybe when I am compelled to make a photograph. This image had to be captured surreptitiously using my body as a shield and relying on intuition, stealth, and luck to get a frame fired off clandestinely. The artwork in this photograph,“untitled (Marfa Project) 1996” is by artist Don Flavin.

Jeremy Green “Ocotillo Zebra” 7/30/22

Necessity is the mother of invention, but it can also be the seed of genius. In the Big Bend area of southwest Texas, providing shade is an art form. This is my spot all this week. This kind of broken shade, made by laying readily available ocotillo across overhead beams, is perfect in that it blends hard sun with coal black shade. It’s visually stimulating, yet it’s also soothing. It’s loud and quiet at the same time. Even a gringo can sit outside for long spells enjoyably.

Jeremy Green “Goodbye Old Paint” 7/10/22

Cowboys sang a particular kind of yip to soothe the cattle they herded on the Chisholm Trail. The song “Goodbye Old Paint” sung by Tex Ritter was one. It’s worth a listen.  

The crumbly painted wall in west Texas couched the old Cadillac road warrior. The play of colors and textures told a story of things that have outlasted their use and have been discarded along the way. My intuition with a mid-range zoom lens progressively arrived at this composition.

Jeremy Green “Latilla” 5/31/20

In the southern part of what was loosely defined on 19th century maps as the “Great American Desert” and includes the Big Bend region of Texas, the intense sun is broken but not entirely blocked by laying sticks along vigas (roof beams) of verandas, allowing some sun and some shade. It’s called latilla, and it’s a necessary contrivance. The shadowing has been an attraction to me wherever I have seen it, but I had not been able to divine a decent picture of it before. While waiting for my lunch at a fancy hotel restaurant a couple of weeks ago, I shot this with my iPhone 11 Pro Max which has an extra wide angle lens. It’s a feature of the phone’s camera that I have rarely used, but this was a situation that was right for it. My extra-wide lens for my 35mm camera was left behind many miles away. This was reason enough for me to have gotten that iPhone.

Jeremy Green “Christo Checker” 5/21/20

Underneath the tarp is a Checker Marathon. Known for their durability and longevity, this car has covered many miles on countless trips between the Big Bend region of Southwest Texas where it now slumbers and Los Angeles 1200 miles away. I shot this same car in the same spot about 10 years ago before it was enshrouded, and it hasn’t moved since then. Juxtaposed in this wild and raw landscape, it reminds me of the work of the artist Christo, and I felt a reprise was in order. My friend Mimi holds out hope that some day it will be restored across the river in Mexico, but I’m not holding my breath on that.

Jeremy Green “Native Sun” 08/05/19

The Rio Grande border in the Big Bend where this portrait was made is remote and deceptively quiet. A shallow river crossing here has been in use for probably thousands of years by native peoples as well as by others in more recent times. Beneath the surface and in the bright light of day there is a shadow of tension, pride, fear, and anger at play. That is what this image portrays to me.

Jeremy Green “40 Degrees Celsius” 07/06/19

The last 3 hours of the 8-hour drive to the Big Bend from Austin is through vast, glorious nothingness. This time of year the light is so bright and the heat so intense that I wanted to make a shot about that. The resulting image resembles an infrared treatment, although that wasn’t the intention. The intention was to illustrate the sense of being here in the open and the heat and the light.