Route 285 New Mexico

 

 

The original image idea for this piece wasn't taken in New Mexico. It was a snapshot of Rudy Van Gelder's house at 445 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. It was where Coltrane recorded A Love Supreme.

 

 

The Robert Frank photo seemed to fit better with the mood that was emerging as I tracked it. The piece abruptly shifts to the minor mode at the end and becomes very spooky. I used a radio clip from 1955 as perhaps would have been on in his car. There appears to be a cloud in the distance, with streaks of rain falling, which I see as perhaps being "omenesque".

The image is decidedly contrasty. If you look at the images on the internet, you'll see a wide range of contrasts, some very light and some even sepia-toned. What I thought was interesting about the contrast issue is that it informed the mode switch in an abstract way.

The assumption is that this photograph was taken at night and was instead made using the cinematic technique known as "day for night". To achieve the effect he drastically underexposed the negative yielding the impression of moonlit landscape in the finished print.