Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1982)
REVIEWS: ‘On Golden Pond,’ ‘Dance ‘82,’ ‘Glass Menagerie,’ Metropol jan. 27, 1982 emerald arts & entertainment Ted Orland set out across country in his red bus intent on capturing a series of portraits of the American persona Instead he wound up with a with series of '20th century landscapes America seen from the freeway His show is currently on exhibit at the Photography at Oregon Gallery in the University Museum of Art For Orland in his first year as a photography professor at the University, it is first showing here The beginnings of this group of related images evolved out of his journey to do a workshop in North Carolina Planning to drive cross-country, Orland thought that getting there ought to be half the fun " Since he had done very little portraiture in the past. Orland purchased a camera suitable for close-ups and loaded up his bus. Photon" Orland was intent on capturing American faces and bodies, but through a serendipity of sorts he found a new subject to focus on ‘ The few extra feet of height in the bus gave me a perspective that made all the difference in the world," he said Instead of portraits he found wsf the environs of interstate highways provided a perfectly shallow field of^ vision for his new camera — a view that was enhanced by the layering effect of his 127mm lens Admittedly a closet romantic." Orland went against the grgjft and chose not to do the objH^Mffy "rape of the land" photos He loi^Kd instead for those points where an unconscious equilibrium had been reached between humanity and nature "The guard rail, the cut and fill, the^ fences a frontag^Md. or telephonj wires and railrglfljjKks receedingj into fields and4QBs appealed to j sense of neatnes&«nd order it's not these specific things that^ artist or photographer is really thinking about It’s what they photo by marfc pynos ted ORLAIVD AND THE QUEST FOR THE 2 0 T H C E N T U R Y LANDSCAPE "«T * represent that's interesting the intangibles that live in the spaces between objects — things like love, or silehce, or awe Capturing these scenes, however, - ‘^%fy main problem Jr ~ " 3Yas in avoiding eing rear-ended.’ posed some problems. Highway patrolmen stopped Orland more than once. "In most states it's illegal to stop on the freeway unless it's an .< emergency, so I had to work fast," he said "Most of the photographs were •i"* taken during only two or three minutes of stopping time ” Because the photos had to be taken from a tripod, shots had to be set up quickly My main problem was in avoiding getting rear-ended, since I only drove 50 miles an hour and even that's a little too fast when you're translating what you see in color into subtler tones of black and white " Precise in composition, the photos are the result of this ability to transpose reality into a black and white world with discrimination and agility They are subtle gauze-like images that reverse the traditional process of blackness decorated with white and gray Orland conceptualizes a field of whiteness and embellishes it with details of dark tone His image of a sun s last rays touching cloud wisps in Wyoming is an example of this minimalism At first glance, one is not sure if there is any image at all Each image is an impression of formalized static beauty, composed of elegant lace gray. From a casual perspective they possess no disturbing elements, no sense of disonance They are so clean as to seem foreign, almost alien, as with the photo of Orland atop his bus Death Valley in the distance, shadows in the foreground, the scene resembles a post-card from another planet Aside from this surreal quality, there is an underlying'content that is captivating. It is a probing questioning of our constipated American vision Orland removes the plain and ordinary from our brainmills and gives us a fresh look at the world become invisible In this new series Orland creates wordless telegrams of dispassionate views. While he emphasizes that he's "not out to educate the world," he does teach us something with this enigmatic embroidery of light and paper He gives us the opportunity to touch reality with someone else s fingers, to be connected formally only in seeing, leaving our imaginations unbound and free for a flight of fancy by tony buda
