STEPHEN BEST  Sandholes Road

Artist Statement

 

Sandholes Road documents a 2.5km stretch of a typical country lane on the outskirts of Braidwood in the southern tablelands of NSW where I now live.  It was conceived as a set of about a dozen photographs conveying the character of the road and its surroundings and contains images of trees, sky, grasses and, of course, the road itself.

 

In fact, the ordinariness of the subject is the point. As this landscape is quintessential and timeless and deserves to be seen for its classical beauty. I was influenced and emboldened by the work of the American photographer Robert Adams in this undertaking.

 

The twelve images selected for Sandholes Road were photographed over a period from 2009 through 2011.  All were shot using a fixed lens medium format rangefinder and printed digitally as monochrome to a warm-toned baryta paper. Other than the development of the film, all aspects of the process to final print are my own.

 

Though I exhibit regularly in group shows Sandholes Road will be only the second set of my images to be shown. A previous solo exhibition, Coast (large format colour landscapes from the NSW south coast/Victoria north east region) was exhibited at the Huw Davies Gallery, Manuka Arts Centre in Canberra in 2007.

 

I am a professional digital printmaker offering my services commercially from a studio at my place of residence here in Braidwood. I’ve received a number of awards for my printmaking and have collaborated on some sixty exhibitions around Australia over the last five years.