About this project

Hello:

This is my third big trip (second Kickstarter project) for my ongoing series titled: “A Portrait of America Left Behind”.
You are directly contributing to this body of work! Any image that you find in this gallery for the link below taken in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada are because of people like you!

Thank you!
Now please feel free to read on and look at some of my work…

http://www.brandonschulman.com/portfolio/fine_art

With your help, I am trying to raise $3000, the smallest amount needed in order to set out on my journey. That said, the more money I raise the longer I’ll stay out on the road… Basically, the more money that I can generate, the better funded I will be for the next trip. This is a ongoing series for many more years, but I need to get out on the road this fall!!!

The next four states are Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio!

Your contributions will help with my film expense, gasoline, and infrequent motel stays; I have a camper shell on my truck and sleep back there too! In return for your support you will get a Chromogenic Print and, for the highest donors, a personalized book from the trip. A Chromogenic print is a real chemical print made from the negative to a positive (the print) in a darkroom. You will be getting a piece of history, as few still work in this medium. It is a tedious process, but the end result is a rewarding object of tangible grace and honesty from the photographer.

America is a large nation, broken up by imaginary borders, and cultural differences. A home to over 300 million people where most rarely see outside their home state, there is a record, a fingerprint of our presence in almost every corner of this country. Over time, things of today become things of yesterday. What is left is a window into a past view of the future, a glimpse of someone’s hopes and dreams, which are now objects on the back of a ground glass.

In photographing a land as large as America a person has to make decisions. Mine was to photograph what humanity builds, without the presence of the builder. In the end thru the editing process a narrative is created or more accurately intended. Photographs are not words or even ideas, but “frames” chosen by the photographer to show a “piece” of what they decide to display. A compressed moment thru tonality, time, and space. This project’s intentions are to prize what once was prized, to remember what once was loved, and to appreciate the things that still help us live. It is attempting to make us reflect on our actions, the impact on the land, and the country that we love. It is not a judgment, but a “truthful” display of what is, and what is left.

“A Portrait of America Left Behind” was shot on a 1959 Linhof Master Technika with old single coated Linhof lens; a camera similar to the forgotten spaces it records. I have been working on this project for two years now and have covered over 15,000 miles in my old Ford pick up truck; using the camper shell to not only shoot from above for a different perspective, but to sleep in for protection and shelter. All prints except for a few are C-Prints made in my darkroom at home. The others are digital C-Prints because of negative error. The negative to positive process ensures a form of “trust” between the photographer and the viewer, a “truth” that has existed thru out the course of photography. This trust is being lost at the moment, and when a viewer questions the honesty of an image, we are losing one of the greatest qualities of photography. When will we be able to decide when the new is not necessarily the better? When what we have in front of us is all we need?