The photo above is part of a long-term project to capture the Wisconsin Dells in the off-season. I started planning last week and went out on my first shoot on Monday.
The Dells for most people exists between the months of June and August. The Waterpark Capital of the World attracts hundreds of thousands of people in those few months. I'm fascinated by what goes on the other nine months of the year, when the colorful and slightly run-down rides stand out stark against grey Wisconsin skies and landscapes. The Dells doesn't disappear when the tourists go home. It stays. My project is going to be to capture what that looks like.
I was totally inspired by Ted Forbes and Wade Griffith's podcast, The Photography Show, which I listen to on long drives to and from Reedsburg. Their conversations typically run the gamut from banter to inspiration to hardcore information, and I appreciate that. Teaching isn't all about straight-up learning, and we all learn in different ways. I have no interest in "going pro," just taking cool images that make me happy and sometimes sharing that with people, and I feel like that podcast speaks to a multitude of photography audiences. I enjoy it. Anyway, they were talking the other day about having a long-term personal project to work on that might take a year, ten years, whatever it takes - just something on the back burner that you do just because you enjoy it. They said to think of what you like to shoot and go shoot it - if it's portraits, go take portraits, if it's band photos, go shoot band photos. That got me thinking - what do I really like to take pictures of? Which of my photos do I really like looking at? What subject matter makes me happiest?
Besides my cats (lol), only one photo really came to mind. I took this photo at Butterfest last year, and along with this one and this one, they are among some of my favorite images I've ever captured. I've taken photos at Butterfest for the Reedsburg Independent for the past couple years, and from the parade to the demo derby, it's one of my favorite times of year. The colors, the looks on people's faces, the scenes, the rides, everything. And they are photos I love to revisit again and again. But Butterfest only comes once per year.
John suggested that this summer, we follow carnivals around the state and take photos, and while I kind of like the idea of being nomadic carnie-stalkers, those images could get old really fast. Why not go somewhere the carnival never leaves? The Dells.
I grew up in Reedsburg, 15 minutes from the Dells, and I wrote my senior thesis on how that affected my psyche, and the minds and imaginations of my friends and neighbors. We spent three months of the year working in the cartoonishness that is the summer-Dells and another nine months of the year working in an empty city, waterslides devoid of water. What is a tourist attraction like when the tourists are gone?
I did a decent job of writing about it in the year and a half I spent on my senior thesis. I've decided to revisit the subject matter with a new tool - my camera. We'll see what happens. Expect more rambling on my childhood, tourism theory, and hopefully a few decent images.
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