Julie Shafer, Untitled (Overlook), 2018
1 media/julieshafer_untitledoverlook_2018_thumb.jpg 2020-05-01T04:16:08+00:00 Denise M. Johnson 4ac969f411f8ab69a8061d019e5b50c846dc43d8 337 1 Photo plain 2020-05-01T04:16:08+00:00 Denise M. Johnson 4ac969f411f8ab69a8061d019e5b50c846dc43d8This page is referenced by:
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2020-05-10T01:52:27+00:00
Follow Water
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Denise Johnson Interviews Julie Shafer Pt. 3
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2020-05-18T18:32:05+00:00
Julie Shafer describes the challenging conditions of moving through and photographing sites along the trail.
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Transcript:
"Yeah, I mean it was really important to me that I try to get as best an understanding as I could of what it would have been like out there. And that’s like an impossible thing to do, but you know, I wanted to make that effort. And so, when I was out at The Parting of the Ways it was in the middle of summer - it was July - and that’s about the time they would have been, you know sometime in early to mid July they would have been at Parting of the Ways. And, it was about 110 degrees out, and because of the flatness of these plains, the days are very long. Very, very long. Sun rises early, sets late, and there is no cover anywhere. And I don’t think that it was just unseasonably warm or anything. You know, I think that was the condition that they would have been in. Also, mosquitoes are everywhere. Like, the worst mosquito situation I’ve been in. So, at that point, it’s like hot, malnourished, most of the people traveling on there were sick just from like contaminated water, or other sort of like diseases you know going through these wagon trains. So, like cholera, malaria, very common. So they’re also just weak from disease, weak from walking on foot a thousand miles, and hot and there’s just no relief in sight. And so, at that moment, where you have to decide between the two, I can just imagine wanting the trip to end, so that cutting off several days, or you know like practically a week from the journey, would be very appealing. But I can’t imagine that thought lasting very long because the thought of not having water in those conditions just seemed unmanageable. You know like the animals would collapse and die, they would collapse and you know just be so dehydrated. And so, I believe most people chose the longer path. And you know like water was their life line, so like anywhere you could follow it, they would." Julie Shafer May 5, 2020 -
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2020-04-23T04:27:42+00:00
Suggesting Wind
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Denise Johnson essay
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2020-05-27T23:34:15+00:00
Shafer often writes of their experiences as they photograph in these remote spaces. The shoot in which they’d capture Untitled (Edith) was planned months in advance, and involved a summer scouting to the location, as well as a number of friendly conversations with locals. Shafer was approached by a Wyoming business owner who was curious about the project and referred Shafer to a neighbor who knew of a rock face across a river that was rarely visited because of the difficulty crossing the swiftly moving water. The neighbor had an all terrain vehicle, and warmly agreed to take Shafer to the site in the fall. The day of the scheduled rendezvous, however, saw an unusually early cold front that dropped temperatures below 15 degrees. Shafer had to wait a few days for temperatures to rise to a more hospitable 30 degrees to embark. Once at the site, near Independence Rock, Shafer was astonished by the unrelenting force of the wind. While it’s impossible to do more than suggest wind in a still photographic image, a sense of its harshness is nonetheless present in the print.