Weekly Artist Post #3

Christian Patterson

Christian Patterson returns to his native Fond du Lac, Wisconsin with his series, Bottom of the Lake. Patterson uses his black and white photos, to portray the quiet and desolate surroundings of Fond du Lac in the winter. It is apparent that Patterson uses a high ISO to get a better quality image for his shots. He also used a small aperture setting in the first photo for the anchor chained to the light post to be in greater depth of field than the water in the background. I would assume that Patterson used his past experience of living in Fond du Lac to capture his photographs. In all three of the photos above, he does not use people as his subjects. Instead, he displays the quiet atmosphere during the wintertime. Perhaps Patterson also used shutter speed of 1/15 and a f5.8 for aperture. Possibly because the time he took the shots, the weather was overcast and the sun was not shining as bright.

Patterson reconnects with his hometown of Fond du Lac. He does a great job at displaying his own personal history, as well as the town's history and atmosphere. It gives the sense that Patterson did in fact grow up in a small town America setting and endured the harsh brutal winters of the American north. He also does an outstanding job of displaying the geography, climate, and culture of his hometown. 

The second photograph above appealed to me the most because it creates a sense of loneliness in the tiny town. Patterson currently resides in the hustle of New York City and is constantly surrounded by many different types of people. However, in Fond du Lac, Patterson displays a sense of a constant setting in the quiet town. There are no people walking through the snowy streets. Instead, it is a snowy town where only the bar light illuminates the streets. I also liked his use of black and white for his photos because it creates a better sense of using the snow to his advantage for his photographs. We already know that the snow is covering the majority of his surroundings and he perhaps creates a sense of "black and white" and not a lot of color is in the town during the harsh winters.