Contemporary Photographer Series - Scott Conarroe
Scott Conarroe is a contemporary photographer living and working in Canada. His most recent body of work, By Land, By Sea, is a two-part survey of the vast territory that is Anglo-America. Traveling through Canada and the United States, one part follows rail lines across the continent, while the other traces a geographic contour around it. He was recently interviewed by Tania McCamy for our new segment, Contemporary Photographer Series (CPS).
You’ve spoken of your interest in the current worldwide economic and environmental situation. You state that your hope for the body of work, By Rail, is to encourage the conversation on the ethics and logistics of land use, transportation, and civic design. Did you start out with the intention to create work with a social and ethical conscience? Were there particular influences for you that shaped this interest and/or awareness?
I began By Railbecause I kept noticing train tracks in my pictures of other things. It seemed like a motif I was into so I decided to explore it more deliberately. No one had been humouring my conceptual rhetoric since I finished grad school two years earlier. The audience for my work was interested in what the photographs depicted so I'd begun having conversations about things beyond my own grand ideas. I should be embarrassed by how exhilarating this shift in perspective was; how late I was to grow out of incessant self-regard... Nonetheless, the world was a fascinating tragicomedy when I finally paid attention.
At that time I was living midway between Detroit and Toronto; south was the late great Motor City, and north was the continent's busiest highway. The term Peak Cheap Oil had recently been coined, contemporary versions of the GTO and Mustang announced “Muscle Car Revival!”, An Inconvenient Truth was in theatres, and the US government still refuted global warming. To turn my lovely motif into a “serious subject” I began doing research and discovered that trains are highly valued in the rest of the developed world. Our gospel about railways not being viable is ridiculous horse shit everywhere else on Earth. By Rail is about railroads the same way Animal Farmis about pigs and horses; its real subject is North American civilization. On one hand we're expansive and beautiful and inspired, but on the other we're riddled with pathetic fallacies. I didn't set out to “create work with a social and ethical conscience”, but a degree of critique is inevitable unless you're dangerously stupid and/or cynical.
I began By Railbecause I kept noticing train tracks in my pictures of other things. It seemed like a motif I was into so I decided to explore it more deliberately. No one had been humouring my conceptual rhetoric since I finished grad school two years earlier. The audience for my work was interested in what the photographs depicted so I'd begun having conversations about things beyond my own grand ideas. I should be embarrassed by how exhilarating this shift in perspective was; how late I was to grow out of incessant self-regard... Nonetheless, the world was a fascinating tragicomedy when I finally paid attention.
At that time I was living midway between Detroit and Toronto; south was the late great Motor City, and north was the continent's busiest highway. The term Peak Cheap Oil had recently been coined, contemporary versions of the GTO and Mustang announced “Muscle Car Revival!”, An Inconvenient Truth was in theatres, and the US government still refuted global warming. To turn my lovely motif into a “serious subject” I began doing research and discovered that trains are highly valued in the rest of the developed world. Our gospel about railways not being viable is ridiculous horse shit everywhere else on Earth. By Rail is about railroads the same way Animal Farmis about pigs and horses; its real subject is North American civilization. On one hand we're expansive and beautiful and inspired, but on the other we're riddled with pathetic fallacies. I didn't set out to “create work with a social and ethical conscience”, but a degree of critique is inevitable unless you're dangerously stupid and/or cynical.
The images depicted in By Rail seem to denote an intersection of the past with the present. These rail lines, I’m assuming built long ago, are seen running though modern landscapes and neighborhoods. Do you see this as representation of the new encroaching upon the old? Or do they go hand in hand, as a result of one another?
The train lines in this series definitely run through all kinds of landscapes and neighborhoods; they also run alongside roads. Highways echo railways here, and each connotes an era of our development; one is past and the other, although presently in use, is passing. For me, By Rail's blank swaths of road are somehow more poignant than the tracks they deposed. The Interstates are a legacy from the middle of the last century; it's no longer credible to associate them with any sense of The New. Another way to consider time in this work is by thinking of Anglo-America in similar terms: Canada, an outpost of the British Empire, and the United States, a Cold War superpower, allude to history and recent history respectively. The New World is an old idea.
The train lines in this series definitely run through all kinds of landscapes and neighborhoods; they also run alongside roads. Highways echo railways here, and each connotes an era of our development; one is past and the other, although presently in use, is passing. For me, By Rail's blank swaths of road are somehow more poignant than the tracks they deposed. The Interstates are a legacy from the middle of the last century; it's no longer credible to associate them with any sense of The New. Another way to consider time in this work is by thinking of Anglo-America in similar terms: Canada, an outpost of the British Empire, and the United States, a Cold War superpower, allude to history and recent history respectively. The New World is an old idea.
In looking at some of your other bodies of work, By Sea, for example, there seems to be a recurrent theme of congestion. For instance, in images such as Ship, Myrtle Beach and O’Dells Citrus Shop there appears to be an emphasis on excess. Your pictorial frame is very full, seeming to represent our overdevelopment and massive consumption of land. Is this something you are consciously trying to convey?
I don't think I was consciously trying to convey anything. I identified a subject I wanted to explore, and my intention was to survey our coastline perimeter as a singular entity; I get that its sheer vastness is more manageable when broken into distinct stories or interests or geographies, but I think it's also worth considering it as some type of totality. I suspect the congestion you're seeing was a pictorial strategy for offsetting the “empty” sea with vernacular clutter. Another plausible answer is that the eastern seaboard simply is congested and excessive; in 2009 when I was shooting there 36% of Americans lived in states that touch the Atlantic. My Pacific and Arctic images tend to be sparser and more landscapey. It is an interesting situation though; we don't recognize sea level rise or shoreline erosion as impediments to development. An almost related piece of trivia is there are areas on the west coast where sea level is actually drawing back; as glaciers melt and get smaller there is less weight pushing down tectonic plates so they sit a little higher... but back to your question, I'm opinionated enough through my mouthhole; I'd rather my pictures not actively convey as much. I'd like them to be a setting for reflection on how things are panning out. The visual excess is part of quieting the polemical. My photos operate on two levels; first viewers can behold the larger compositional vista; then they can step forward to luxuriate in the details. I expect the congestion is part of that.
You have also mentioned that traveling plays a big part in the way you work. You tend to visit areas of interest to you and then bike around until you find an area to climb. This allows you to escape the distraction of photographing on the streets and allows yourself the time to compose your images. I’m curious as to what format you are using. I’m assuming portability is a big factor for you?
I shoot 4x5. I don't mind lugging it around when I'm out shooting, but the gigantic suitcase required for tripod, camera and ample film is a hassle at airports.
Where do you feel you are going next with your work? Do you plan to continue the development of By Rail?
I spent most of last year looking China against the backdrop of their railway expansion. Emulating the way that the Interstate System once reinvented America, China is working on a massive infrastructure upgrade. High-speed rail is the backbone of a million smaller projects bringing Chinese backwaters into the modern era. I think it's also a step toward spreading the population out a little more; again, like in the US, the bulk of the people live on one side of the country. And, this summer, I'll start picking away at a project about the roads that made the Roman Empire possible; it's kind of a prequel to By Rail and The Great Eastern.
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