Janet Neuhauser
Artist Statement
I spent the month of October 2020 at the Willapa Bay AiR making pinhole photographs both on film and month-long exposures on paper. I decided to photograph what the peninsula revealed to me. I placed the long exposure cameras (about 30) and then went out each day to make images on film that I would not see for at least a month. I shot images side by side on the film to create diptychs or triptychs. Some worked and others didn't. Most of the final images are not diptychs but depict my vision of what the Peninsula is now, (the oyster industry, tourists and fishing) what it has been (a settlement of Native Americans) and how I have made images differently there over the years (depending on my circumstances). I do have a history with the place. I first went there in 1983. I have returned many times since. I am interested in how the two types of water bodies have formed the people who live there and how that is reflected in the landscape. I am intrigued by the oldness of the place. I am comfortable there; at ease with the water so close on either side, the tsunami warnings, the remoteness of the place, the roar of the ocean that is heard everywhere and the early settlers vs. the tribes of Native Americans who fought over this sacred ground. What I love about photography is how much it informs me. It not only tells me about a place but how I have reacted to it. This element of surprise and the actual making of the image is important in pinhole photography. Often, I would shoot only 12 images a day, spending most of the time looking or deciding whether to return when the light was different. The work is close to me, just made. I usually need more time to assimilate what I have made. But I am feeling good about sharing it with Blue Sky viewers for the first time. And I hope that these images will raise more questions about the Peninsula that can be answered easily.
Janet Neuhauser | Seattle, WA