In my ongoing project "On Hills" I look for vulnerability, tenderness, and absurdity in the built environment of towns and cities. I use photography as a way to keep the uncollectible and to locate longing—fulfilled and unfulfilled—in the landscape. Looking at the landscape is a way to see what we have, what we want, and what we fear. I search for visual evidence of the ways people—as individual and as a collective—intervene in the landscape to force livability. From upon hills I can open space from ground to sky and peer into the homes, yards, and lives of others. I want to examine the conflicts between desires to cooperate with the landscape and attempts to dominate it. I am concerned with matters (and manners) of land use. What are our expectations about what outdoor space should look like or accomplish? Do we buck the norms or perpetuate them? How do we use land, and does this (mis)use bring us together or keep us apart? I seek to offer answers to these questions with my work. My practice as an artist is rooted in straight photography. I use large-format for its generosity and fidelity; it always gives me more than I ask for. By necessity—because of the material’s expense and scarcity—I work slowly and with a lot of intention. When I am framing an image in-camera and making decisions about light, distance, and scale, I am brokering a taut and vibrant peace between the nouns (persons, places, things) that inhabit the picture, and I am pleased. I want to pay attention to the smallest details in the built landscape and make photographs that reward close and careful looking.

In my ongoing project "On Hills" I look for vulnerability, tenderness, and absurdity in the built environment of towns and cities. I use photography as a way to keep the uncollectible and to locate longing—fulfilled and unfulfilled—in the landscape. Looking at the landscape is a way to see what we have, what we want, and what we fear. I search for visual evidence of the ways people—as individual and as a collective—intervene in the landscape to force livability. From upon hills I can open space from ground to sky and peer into the homes, yards, and lives of others. I want to examine the conflicts between desires to cooperate with the landscape and attempts to dominate it. I am concerned with matters (and manners) of land use. What are our expectations about what outdoor space should look like or accomplish? Do we buck the norms or perpetuate them? How do we use land, and does this (mis)use bring us together or keep us apart? I seek to offer answers to these questions with my work. My practice as an artist is rooted in straight photography. I use large-format for its generosity and fidelity; it always gives me more than I ask for. By necessity—because of the material’s expense and scarcity—I work slowly and with a lot of intention. When I am framing an image in-camera and making decisions about light, distance, and scale, I am brokering a taut and vibrant peace between the nouns (persons, places, things) that inhabit the picture, and I am pleased. I want to pay attention to the smallest details in the built landscape and make photographs that reward close and careful looking.

palomadooley.net
@pomonadoobie

palomadooley.net
@pomonadoobie