Brenton Hamilton is a photographer and sculptor living on the Maine coast and working out of a studio on Rockport harbor. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Savannah College of Art & Design, and is currently the director of the Professional Certificate Program at Rockport College.
Savannah, Georgia & A Sense of Place: these images represent the work from a portfolio made on the banks of the Savannah River in Georgia. I worked in a small area for two years and made about 40 photographs with a large wooden field camera.
The landscape of the South is subtle in shape and animated, as the trees and other forms rush and twine together. I found that language in that landscape there so arresting and unusual. I would watch for the light to become softer in the later day and set the camera up and go to work.
The view camera is a slower process and asks the photographer to look carefully and make bold decisions with the frame. Later when printing I made eccentric choices with toning of the prints and relied on 19th C. methods and formulas. The color of the prints is quite specific and difficult to reproduce – thus these image/prints have become unique – despite having an existing negative.
The long light there and the primitive beauty of that landfall is still compelling for me. I felt like a mapmaker and explorer in a new place. These are the photographs that I have brought back.
