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Gallery: Ken McCown
Full of Beauties
If I have learnt anything, it is that life forms illogical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return?
— Margot Fonteyn, Autobiography
Dan Flavin, installlation detail, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas.
Margot Fonteyn's quotation captures the spirit of the photographs presented in this latest slideshow of mine on Places. Fleeting moments and the rigors imposed by camera technology challenge both the eye and the mind to create opportunities to make expressive photographs.
These images focus upon fragments of things in the world — buildings, landscapes — which we usually observe and grasp first as a whole, maybe even from a distance. They are static compositions that result from dynamic transitional experiences — experiences "in-between," in a sense, when we pause to examine an intricate detail, or to notice the illogical patterns that are, as Fonteyn says, "full of beauties."
Editors' Note
This is the latest in a series of slideshows featuring the photography of landscape architect Ken McCown. Please see also Found Landscapes and Designed Landscapes.
This is the latest in a series of slideshows featuring the photography of landscape architect Ken McCown. Please see also Found Landscapes and Designed Landscapes.
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Comments (4) | JUMP TO MOST RECENT >>
Gorgeous photos and lovely passage from Margret Fonteyn - really made my day to watch the slideshow and think about all the in between spaces of life that we so often pass by without noticing. Thanks for sharing!
beautiful pics!
these are beautiful, ken! really lovely work; glad to see it published for a wide design audience.
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ABOUT THE SLIDESHOW
A portfolio of photographs by Ken McCown, capturing patterns and fragments of buildings and landscapes.View Slideshow >>
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ken McCown is Chair of the Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.More Bio >>
DESIGN OBSERVER JOBS
MORE BY Ken McCown
06.30.11: Point of Astonishment03.05.10: Designed Landscapes
10.18.09: Found Landscapes
More by Ken McCown >>
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12.28.10 at 01:10