Introduction
This editioned folio of twelve loose and unbound prints, titled Foundations, is my personal selection of landscape
images from those that I created between 1975 and 1985. The twelve prints are my personal favorites from this
period of my landscape photography. I have enjoyed the process of capturing these images and subsequently
exploring the tonal values to create images that have had a lasting impact for me. These images are also important
images to me in that they constitute the foundation of my technical craft and artistic vision.
Having the value of time to retrospectively evaluate my images, I have realized what I was trying to accomplish with
these images were to deal with my understanding about the foundation of life, both physically and metaphorically.
Previous to this body of work, I had enjoyed photography as a means of record keeping while becoming steadily
aware of the various schools of photographic thought, both professionally and artistically.
After we had relocated our family to Southern California, I began to explore using photography as a means of self
expression. I attended a series of private workshops conducted by Don Huntsman, a dentist and art photographer,
to understand the Zone system and expressive Black and White printing. During this period I made the image
Arizona Monsoon with a 35mm camera, using a modified zone system. It was my ability to create this image that
convinced me to make the investment in a larger format camera system. I was now hooked on the landscape as a
means of self expression.
Shortly after acquiring the Mamiya RB67 medium format camera system, our family made a driving trip up to
Vancouver and British Colombia. During that trip, I made the images of British Columbia Waterfalls, Vancouver
Woods, and Vancouver River Canyon. I had finally experienced pre-visualization, the ability to see what could be
the potential of the final printed image while still confronting the subject in front of my lens.
To understand and utilize composition, film exposure and development to control tonal values and then translate
my experience captured on the film onto the printed paper in my wet darkroom. Wow!
I also began to read and understand the concept of equivalence as written about and photographed by Minor
White, Wynn Bullock and Paul Coponigro. That the landscape and the images created from it by me could be
metaphors for other experiences and feeling.
I have found myself repeatedly drawn to certain subjects and now explore others, while always trying to be open to
the direct experience of making the photograph. Thus I share my experiences with you with these twelve images. I
know that they represent different ideas and concepts for me, but I hope that they connect and resonate with you
as well.
Best regards, Doug Stockdale
Foundations
Landscapes: 1975 - 1985
Editioned Folio
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