During an artist residency in a vineyard and ranch in rural Sonoma County, California I shot photos of old farm houses, sheds and farming equipment, some of which dated back several decades and had many stories of former inhabitants and various utilitarian uses. One house used to house farm and maintenance workers; another was hauled from a nearby town – where it had served as a saloon. Farming equipment and trucks left on the ranch remind of older times and simpler farming methods.
I chose to shoot at night with the light of the full moon and in some cases electric lights inside the buildings as light and color sources. I illuminated certain details of the objects with a flashlight during very long exposures.
For this series my goal was to express not only the rural stillness, but also a lonely mood and eeriness that lingers in these sparsely populated landscapes, that have been seeing devastation through wildfires year after year. Although cultivated and partly used for growing wine, it borders old oak forests and the sandy banks of the Russian River. The forests show evidence of fire blasts that raged through the area a few years ago. The landscape holds an awe of remoteness and reminded me of the smallness of human civilization in contrast to nature’s force.
