Laura McPhee

    As I have been learning more about the elements of art and things that catch people's eye and make them keep looking, I've been trying to find people, especially photographers, that I can learn from. Recently, I discovered Laura McPhee, a contemporary photographer who centers her work on human interaction with nature. This is a subject that I am continually interested in, and I love seeing how different artists can represent these ideas in a unique way. 

    The photo above is the featured photo on Laura's website, and as soon as I saw it, I was sucked in. All the photos I'm presenting here are from her series Desert Chronicle, focusing on time and the paradox of human interactions with nature. 

    In the top photo, immediately the bright yellow and green of the tree grabs my eye as it pops off of the neutral background. The contrast makes the 2D image look 3D to me, like the tree is right in front of me, and the layers of the rock in the background create leading lines that also help to draw the eye into the center, and also represent how time has passed as the layer of rock slowly built up. 

    
        There is so much to discuss with all of her images that I could write a thousand word essay on each one. This one above stuck out to me because of the contrasting cool sky and equipment with the warmer color of the grass in the bottom half of the image. The cloudy gray sky behind the industrial set-up almost makes it blend in, blurring the lines between what is natural and what humans have done. 

    This one caught my eye for the sheer wonder and awe that so many old vehicles in one place creates. She is able to make "junk" look beautiful with the golden light and textures that contrast as much as the colors in the sky and on the ground. This is almost a surreal image and I think the repetition of the vehicles combines with the hazy, soft colors of the sky help achieve this. Unfortunately, this image seems so surreal, but is in fact a reality in our world.

   There is so much more to gather from these images and Laura McPhee's work and I can't wait to explore more of what she has done.