Scott Bean
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WINNER: FAN FAVORITE
"The Lights of Jardine" by Jed Barker
"The Lights of Jardine" by Jed Barker
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"Memorial"
by Alvaro Herrera
"Memorial"
by Alvaro Herrera
May 20-June 19, 2012
Artist Statement-Scott Bean
Growing up in Kansas I had lots of opportunities to spend time outside, usually hunting or fishing. I hate to admit it, but at the time I didn’t pay much attention to the landscapes around me. I did however, learn to really love being outside. For me, my first forays into photography were an excuse to be outside. While that ‘excuse’ is still, and always will be, very important to me, now I find that I also want to capture the experiences I have while being outside so that I can share them with others. With photography it is easy to focus on the visual component of an experience but there is so much more to it than that. When you are standing in the silence of nature watching the sun set you are experiencing more than just the light that is hitting your optic nerves…sounds, emotions, smells, touch...all of that is part of your experience. The challenge with photography isn‘t just how to record light, but how to convey the visual plus everything else with a flat 2D representation of the world at that moment (especially when that moment the photograph represents may have spanned an hour you spent in a location). I hope that my photographs can convey a sense of what it was like to have been there, not just how the light was recorded when I pressed the shutter. I’ve always been inspired by other photographers who could make me feel like I was there in their photograph or make me feel like I very much wanted to be there. That’s what I aspire to achieve with my work. I hope too that if I can share what I’m so lucky to experience out in nature that my viewers will take time to see the beauty of what is around them, whatever that is, and maybe think a bit about doing what they can to take care of their world.
So why photograph Kansas? Everyone knows that Kansas is simply one big flat wheat field right? Certainly agriculture is important to Kansas and a good thing that it is as Kansas feeds a fair amount of people. Agriculture has its own beauty as well...it is pretty impressive to watch a sunset over a large field of wheat blowing in the breeze. But that isn’t everything Kansas has to offer. Kansas has several different geographic regions across the state, most of which are not flat. I’ve now lived in the Flint Hills longer than any other area of Kansas and I’m constantly stunned by the beauty of this area. Spend some time driving the back roads of the Flint Hills, the Red Hills, and the Smoky Hills. I think you will find some pretty amazing landscapes to photograph.The theme of this show is “Close to Home” and the photographs in the show were all made close to Manhattan, most in the immediate area (the farthest location feature is about 2 hours from Manhattan). Everyone likes to travel to new locations and see new things, but it is easy to overlook the beauty we have around us every day.
Growing up in Kansas I had lots of opportunities to spend time outside, usually hunting or fishing. I hate to admit it, but at the time I didn’t pay much attention to the landscapes around me. I did however, learn to really love being outside. For me, my first forays into photography were an excuse to be outside. While that ‘excuse’ is still, and always will be, very important to me, now I find that I also want to capture the experiences I have while being outside so that I can share them with others. With photography it is easy to focus on the visual component of an experience but there is so much more to it than that. When you are standing in the silence of nature watching the sun set you are experiencing more than just the light that is hitting your optic nerves…sounds, emotions, smells, touch...all of that is part of your experience. The challenge with photography isn‘t just how to record light, but how to convey the visual plus everything else with a flat 2D representation of the world at that moment (especially when that moment the photograph represents may have spanned an hour you spent in a location). I hope that my photographs can convey a sense of what it was like to have been there, not just how the light was recorded when I pressed the shutter. I’ve always been inspired by other photographers who could make me feel like I was there in their photograph or make me feel like I very much wanted to be there. That’s what I aspire to achieve with my work. I hope too that if I can share what I’m so lucky to experience out in nature that my viewers will take time to see the beauty of what is around them, whatever that is, and maybe think a bit about doing what they can to take care of their world.
So why photograph Kansas? Everyone knows that Kansas is simply one big flat wheat field right? Certainly agriculture is important to Kansas and a good thing that it is as Kansas feeds a fair amount of people. Agriculture has its own beauty as well...it is pretty impressive to watch a sunset over a large field of wheat blowing in the breeze. But that isn’t everything Kansas has to offer. Kansas has several different geographic regions across the state, most of which are not flat. I’ve now lived in the Flint Hills longer than any other area of Kansas and I’m constantly stunned by the beauty of this area. Spend some time driving the back roads of the Flint Hills, the Red Hills, and the Smoky Hills. I think you will find some pretty amazing landscapes to photograph.The theme of this show is “Close to Home” and the photographs in the show were all made close to Manhattan, most in the immediate area (the farthest location feature is about 2 hours from Manhattan). Everyone likes to travel to new locations and see new things, but it is easy to overlook the beauty we have around us every day.