William Wylie "Stills"

Jenkins Johnson Projects

poster for William Wylie "Stills"

This event has ended.

“When the air is still, then so is the surface of the river. Then it holds a perfectly silent image of the world that seems not to exist
in this world. Where, I have asked myself, is this reflection? It is not on the top of the water, for if there is a little current the river
can slide frictionlessly and freely beneath the reflection and the reflection does not move. Nor can you think of it resting on the
bottom of the air. The reflection itself seems a plane of no substance, neither water nor air. It rests, I think, upon quietness.” -
Wendell Berry’s afterword to Stillwater

William Wylie’s stunning silver gelatin photographs featured in Stills were made along a stretch of the Cache la Poudre River in
Fort Collins, Colorado between 1997 and 2001. Wylie’s subject descends from the Rocky Mountain National Forest and flows
untamed through the Colorado landscape until the Poudre weaves through Fort Collins, where it becomes a marginalized
wilderness. For the five miles the river flows through the city, it is frequently seen through the development – glimpses of the river
from the highway or the shopping mall, from parking lots or apartment fire escapes. In many places concrete constrains the river.
Yet Wylie’s photographs hone in on the tranquility and the raw beauty of the river, almost entirely removing the water from its
surroundings.

Wylie’s choice to photograph the water near surface level gives his photographs an abstract quality, making something we are
supremely familiar with into something we virtually cannot recognize. Wylie also chose to work at varying times of the day, so the
light on the water is always varying; some negatives were even exposed by the light of the moon, almost completely abstracting
the landscape. Wylie’s intimate portraits of the Poudre present the viewer with an opportunity to interpret the image in one’s own
manner. With knowledge of the landscape and the photograph’s context, we can imagine that #01-06 (Stillwater) shows the river’s
smooth flow being interrupted by subtle inconsistencies just below the surface; however, simply looking at the image presents a
much more abstract view that could be interpreted in any number of ways. We look forward to the discussions Wylie’s
photographs will elicit within the gallery.

[Image: William Wylie "Stillwater" (2001) silver gelatin print, 30 x38 in.]

Media

Schedule

from February 11, 2010 to April 03, 2010

Opening Reception on 2010-02-11 from 18:00 to 20:00

Artist(s)

William Wylie

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