April 2014

Cities in the Air

“Thus we did not build Castles only, but also Cities in the air.” – William Byrd II, on the founding of Richmond

 During a visit to Belle Isle (a small island in the James River) early last year I was overwhelmed by an impression of many-layeredness. The remains of a Civil War prison were mere yards from the remnants of a more recent war: a Chrysler factory that used to manufacture tank doors. The hydroelectric plant that once powered greater Richmond lay vacant near the smooth rocks swarming with sunbathing college students. And the trees that provided shade were themselves shadowed by the massive suspension bridge directly overhead.

 It soon became apparent that the many-layeredness I perceived at Belle Isle belonged to the city at large. It seemed to me that Richmond was not one city, but rather countless “cities in the air”: the ruins of previous centuries jumbled up with the soon-to-be ruins of our own.

 These photographs are black-and-white silver gelatin contact prints from large format negatives. In other words, I use an old school film camera and a darkroom. Every print is unique. I use a paintbrush to apply silver-reducing bleach and watercolor to the surface of the print — a physical version of Photoshop. I work this way because it embodies a certain kind of looking that I find valuable. A more deliberate, more intense kind of looking.  Think “slow food”, but with a camera.

Everitt’s first conscious ambition was to be a classical composer.  He was three-quarters of the way through a bachelor’s degree in music at Princeton when he realized that he would never be the next Mozart, and he had no desire to be the next Salieri.  He quietly put his adolescent aspirations to rest and took a leave of absence from college.

In 2001, one of Ev’s friends offered to teach him how to use a large-format field camera and how to handle photo chemicals without killing himself.  Over the next five days he endured something like a boot camp for black-and-white photography, emerging at the end with a handful of finished prints and a revelation: he was a photographer.  He bought his friend’s 4″x5″ camera from him, built a darkroom in his mom’s basement, and started to make pictures.  Thus, Ev did manage to live out his childhood dream of being a composer, albeit of images rather than music.

Visit the artist’s website at www.everittclarkphotography.com