Vermont

 

Late summer has come to Vermont and with it days of fog and drenching rain in a new edition of photographs by Lincoln Schatz. Schatz has spent time repeatedly in the mountains and valleys of northern Vermont. First at Bennington College while a student and then over the intervening years since that time. Often taking a camera to photograph this landscape, the Vermont series marks Schatz’s first edition featuring this geographic region exclusively.

 

 

The days are filled with storms and clouds. Only with brief respites from the rain. With each day comes more fog. Bookending the rain, the fog sits heavily in the valleys each morning with first light. Forming densely overnight, it rolls across the landscape cloaking everything in sight. Hiking into the mountains was difficult, finding a place to rest a tripod even more so. The moisture from the rain left every surface wet and slippery. Making for careful footwork.

 

 

When I first arrived to Vermont in 1982 I was transfixed by the lush and rolling Green Mountains. I spent my free time exploring the farms, towns and surrounding landscapes as I continued my studies. Growing up in Chicago it was nearly impossible to get lost in a city that is built on a grid. But in the mountains I tried and often succeeded in getting off-track deep in the woods.

Those early experiences in Vermont continue to influence and inform many of the ways I interact with nature as I photograph today.

Lincoln Schatz

 

 

Trees bend, twist and contort in the forests that cover the mountains here. Fallen trees rest upon the ground. Some hewn by humans, others uprooted through time, storms and unstable soil. Heavily covered in moss and lichen. Creating connections between earth and canopy.

 

 

At the base of these mountains you can find the farms that help to make Vermont special. Communities and people focused on seeking a better way of life through reimagined, as well as traditional, agrarian practices.

 

 

At Bennington I did a series of portraits of Vermont dairy farmers using a view camera. Riding in a dairy tanker as it went from farm to farm early in the morning collecting milk. At each stop along the route I would meet and photograph the farmers, their farms and the land. I was aware that my presence was a distraction from their work and was always grateful for the time they spent with me. As a city kid I was fascinated with every aspect. It represented a proximity to and engagement with the larger natural world which was foreign to me at the time.

My work today is an extension of this. Seeking to further connect with the landscapes of America.

Lincoln Schatz

 

 

These are photographs of marshland next to our campsite. A few months prior it was buried under several feet of snow. Frozen almost solid.

By August it is a thriving habitat for fish, frogs, birds, insects and animals.

Lincoln Schatz

 

Vermont is a collection of limited edition photographs now available to purchase. For more information on the collection, including edition size, framing, and pricing please click here. If you are interested in purchasing these works, please be in touch.