When Maine photographer Dirk McDonnell first began using a large-format view camera, he was intrigued by the way that — owing to its flexible bellows — he could selectively focus on certain elements while throwing others out of focus. Using this technique, he initially turned his attention to Maine’s winter landscape as a way of layering abstraction onto something which — with its bare-bones suppression of detail and minimalist reductionisms — already seemed to lean into a world of floating abstraction. Happy with the results, he employed the same basic technique on subsequent trips to Europe and Mexico. The following slide show represents a series of work taken in Maine during the winter of 2001.
Barn (Looking North), Windsor, Maine | Winter in Maine Photo Credit: McDonnell, DirkBeech Hill, Rockport, Maine | Winter in Maine Photo Credit: McDonnell, DirkBarn on Rt. 1, Lincolnville, Maine | Winter in Maine Photo Credit: McDonnell, DirkPines in Snow, Cushing, Maine | Winter in Maine Photo Credit: McDonnell, DirkGravel Mound in Snow, Rockland, Maine | Winter in Maine Photo Credit: McDonnell, DirkGravel Mound and Loading Tower, Rockland, Maine | Winter in Maine Photo Credit: McDonnell, DirkGravel Mound 2 in Snow, Rockland, Maine | Winter in Maine Photo Credit: McDonnell, DirkWaterfall in Winter, Camden, Maine | Winter in Maine Photo Credit: McDonnell, DirkView from Uncle John’s, Camden, Maine | Winter in Maine Photo Credit: McDonnell, DirkBarn on Rt. 52, Camden, Maine | Winter in Maine Photo Credit: McDonnell, Dirk
