Mr. John Anderson
Owner Photography
John Anderson Photography
Ever since I was a child it seemed to me that the wilderness was my true home. I was separated from it by circumstances which were beyond my control. School, Jobs, social and personal obligations, all bound me to a life apart from my true desire. The forests, the desert, the mountains, the wild night sky, the wind- these were what I longed for, what I dreamt about, what I planned for in my free moments. Regular excursions to the mountains and wild coastlines only whetted my appetite for more. Eventually I began to photograph what it was that drew me to these places - the beauty, the complexity, the grandeur, the fantastic exuberance of life and and the still solemnity of death. In a very real sense these landscape photographs are about longing and desire.
Later in life, I learned that the ancient Greeks actually thought of the shifting mists and clouds, the sounds of a running brook and and the dappled light through the trees, as nymphs, dryads, natural deities, or even what they called the genius or spirit of the place. While it can be engaging to think of them this way, we need no such anthropomorphism to revel in the beauty of mist moving through trees. There is no need to turn it into something less alien. In fact the alien-ness of it is what many of us are drawn to. We can exult in the titanic nature and more-than-human aspect of a storm in the North Cascades without resorting to human-centric metaphors.
The other-ness, the wild, the uncontrolled; these are the real issues when it comes to the meaning of wilderness. A managed wilderness isn't. As animals we need to experience a world that is greater than ourselves in order for our psyches to expand and develop. Our senses evolved in such a world and without it they deaden and atrophy. My photographs are an attempt to point the way to such a world. An attempt to act as sign posts pointing in the right direction.
One can often look up from city streets, or from pleasant suburban yards, or even from rural "green" areas, and catch ones' breath at the beauty, violence and enormity of what's happening in the mountains. Torrential rains, cataclysmic winds, sublime plays of light and color; all happening impossibly far away. We've insulated ourselves too long from the variance and the unexpected of the wild. We've buried ourselves miles deep in managed and manicured land. We've cut ourselves off from the environment which shaped us, which gave birth to us as a species. No wonder we long for the tumult and craziness of art, the sublime in music, dance or a line drawing, the uplifting of emotions in a novel and the unexpected in conceptual or performance art.
Yes, the wild can be found in the human heart and psyche precisely because of where our heart and psyche evolved. The wilderness is our mind's primordial sea; our true home. If these photographs can in some small way return us to that world; if they can remind us of what we long for; if they can awaken desire, then they will have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
I must thank all of the friends who I have dragged through mud, drenching rains, piercing cold, endless miles on steep mountainsides, and survived hours and hours of mind numbing driving while I slept peacefully in the passenger seat. To these generous souls (especially Carolyn, Ric and James) who have lent their good cheer and companionship through some trying situations - I owe a great deal of gratitude. Thank you.
Category(s): Designers
Location(s): Sheffield Building - Vashon College
Feature(s): Artists
