galleries
architectural abstraction
Ford's aim in this series is not just to photograph buildings that have exquisite architectural design, but to look for segments in the architecture, the mechanisms that work within a structure. Architecture to me does not just mean a building or design. Ford segmenting the object with his critical eye, the photograph becoming architecture of abstraction.
cubism
Ford's cubism body of work uses photography in a way that takes photography from its inherent literalness and pushes it further from it's usual flat two dimensional appearance. Here Ford proves that photo-mechanical photography well before the advent of photoshop, is limitless in it's ability for artistic abstract expressionism. This work pays a tribute to the study of Marcel Duchamp "nude descending a staircase, Pablo Picasso and Braque's cubist violin and candlestick, 1910.
eye candy
The eye candy series is a body of work that could really incorporate most everything I shoot. There doesn't have to be a general theme, only what would look good on film, generally color film and what later might look good produced on a very large photographic print. I think of each shot as it's own individual masterpiece. You need not have twenty shots of motors when one says it all.
fordograms
If Man Ray can have his Rayograph then Ford must have his fordograms. This ongoing body of work is out of deep appreciation for a history of photography in abstract expressionism. From artist like Man Ray to Rodchenko and Lazlo Maholy Nagy , Ford strives to join the ranks of photographers who push the medium beyond the literal deep into the abstract realm. The photograms ford has created are crafted using old professional photographic processing reels and equipment, thus giving the images a richness and purity that directly relate to photographic history in more ways than one. Something only a photographer who is a workman in process would have access to. Fords Laboratory is like taking a tour into a museum of gigantic photograph equipment.
barn yard friends
In the rooster series ford has set out to capture the spirit and individual character of these famously feathered creatures. Working hard to make each shot as formal of a portrait as possible. Ford with his rollieflex camera and hand held flash is known for getting in close on his barnyard friends. Often climbing in the hen house to make these portraits personal. He's shot these fine feathered critters from Boston to California.
tiny universe series
In this series Ford has set out to make us think about size. How big and how small we actually are. Ford's tiny universe series or ford galaxy if you will is on a macro level, a discovery of how infinite space is even on the smallest level. This body of work although it is incredibly abstract is really one of the most pure forms of photographic process. The photogram which was first used by William Henry Fox Talbot in his photogenic drawings of plant matter around 1839, is a camera-less image made by placing objects over sensitized paper. Although this process is often taught to beginning photography students it shows photography's unique ability to enter the abstract realm. Ford has pushed this process to a new level by making his photograms unique by recording air bubbles and dust particles onto 4" x 5" ortho-chromatic film. Thus giving him the option to enlarge and reproduce the one off image created.
western scenes
Ford sets out to capture the details of the American west with his medium and large format cameras. From 8" x 10" portraits of Arizona's saguaro's to old store front signs, Ford has captured the west.
fordograph on flickr.com
A bit more about fordograph...Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Occupation: Photographer