"Wine Travels"

Artist's Statement: "Wine Travels"

This exhibition consists mostly of images taken during wine tasting trips through Chile and Argentina.

My partner Steve and I are very lucky to live in a beautiful wine-growing region. We have pursued the study of wine for over twelve years now, having traveled throughout Europe, North and South America, studying wine and wine making in many different regions. It was during one foray into Amador County that led to our relocation from Salt Lake City. Because wine, food and travel are very important to us, I wanted to do an exhibition focusing on those subjects.

"The Abandoned Winery Series" - We stumbled upon an old abandoned winery building in the Rosario Valley district of the Casablanca Valley Wine Region just west of Santiago, Chile. The huge barrels and wine casks were sitting unattended and covered in dust. The sunlight drifted in through cracks in the walls of the old building and I was captivated.

The "Bottle Series" comes from a winery in the Mendoza wine region of Argentina. There, because the wine is exported to different countries with different labeling laws, the bottle will not be labeled until the wine has been sold. They stack the bottles - up to four feet deep, which for me make very interesting abstract images.

The "Zanini Series" was taken at the Zanini Ranch on Ostrom Road in Fiddletown, just over the hill from Safan Ranch were I live. The varietal is Alicante Bouschet, a relatively unknown blending grape that is the only grape to have naturally red juice.

I consider myself to be a formalist photographer in that my work is what it is, composed in the field using natural light. I do not alter, crop, adjust, tint, or otherwise change my images on the computer or in the lab. What you see is what I saw the moment I pressed the shutter button. I used a Canon EOS 35 mm camera and a Canon EOS 20D Digital camera for the images in this exhibition. In order to maintain the best quality and consistency possible I prefer to have a lab print my images and prefer Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper.

And just for fun, I have included several images from my "garden".

-- Angela L. Keeney November, 2007

"Sweaty Steel"	"Oak and Steel"	"Old Bottle"
"Crusher-Destemmer"
"3,500 Liters"	"Antique Barrel Hatch"	"Old Kiln"
		"Antique Press Boards"
"Alicante Bouschet Leaves"	"Alicante Bouschet Leaf"	"Alicante Bouschet Bunch"
"Alicante Bouschet Cluster"
"Malbec"	"Pinot Leaves"	"Chardonnay"
	"Pinot Noir"	"Vineyard"
"Antique Fermentation Tank"	"1,500 Liters"	"Bottles # 10"
"Bottles # 4"	"Bottles # 3"	"Bottles #2"
"Bottles # 5"	"Bottles # 6"	"Bottles # 1"
"Bottles # 11"	"Bottles # 9"	"Glassware"
"Chard"	"Turnip"	"Basil"

My first camera was an Instamatic, a gift from my parents when I was a young girl. I remember the film came in a preloaded canister - pop it in, point and shoot. Many years later, I inherited my father's "real camera" a Canon AE1-P that used "real film".

One other gift my father gave me was an active interest in travel, exploring and learning from other cultures and other worlds. I had fantasies of growing up and working for National Geographic, traveling the world visiting exotic locales, living out of a backpack and wearing faded leather. Reality and recognition of my personality convinced me that as much as I would have liked that lifestyle, I wasn't well suited to it. However, I have been fortunate enough to travel extensively in the past ten years to some pretty far out places, mostly notably the Asmat region of Irian Jaya, West Papua, Indonesia. Images from the many visits there have been exhibited in two museums.

I am most inspired by photographers Dorothea Lang and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Ms. Lang's candid and unsettling images have always touched me deeply. My all time favorite of her work is an image of an older woman, looking frankly and without apology, at the camera. Her open gaze challenging and imploring at the same time speaks to me in ways that other images have not.

Cartier-Bresson, known as "The Father of the Decisive Moment", is a pioneer in street photography. "Street Photography" is the act of taking an image as opposed to making an image. His skill in waiting until the perfect moment is legendary. One of his images really stands out for me - a view of a series of steps from above with one person on the landing of each stairway at the exact same time. I imagine he waited for days for that particular image!

For me, capturing a specific moment in time, the "Truth of the Moment" is much more exciting than staging an image, or forcing a reality. I much prefer photographs of people when they aren't aware the camera is there. To find that truth and to capture that moment is the essence of Cartier-Bresson's "Decisive Moment". The "when" becomes the key - the decision of when to press the shutter, take the image. For me, the composition happens in the moment, in the viewfinder. I do not alter, crop, adjust, tint, or otherwise change my images in the lab or on the computer. What you see is what I saw the moment I pressed the shutter button.

I've been a devoted Canon user for over twenty years having moved from that AE1-P of my fathers through several in the EOS line and now into the Digital line. It took many years before I completely converted to digital and I noticed a big change in the way I take photographs. Free from the expense of film, developing and printing, I find that I take many more images than I did before.

Several years ago I purchased dark room equipment and planned to turn an old travel trailer into a dark room. However, my other great interest in life took over and the trailer was instead converted into accommodations for my guineas and chickens. In my "spare time" I operate a small organic produce farm as well as raise chickens, guinea fowl, goats, and a few pigs.

-- Angela L. Keeney November, 2007

The Opening Reception for this exhibition was on Saturday and Sunday November 10 & 11, 2007 at C.G. di Arie Vineyards and Winery in Mt. Aukum, California.