Frank Armstrong

CV

Frank Armstrong: 2023

When most people travel today, whether it be by air, rail, or road, they want to arrive at their destination as quickly as possible.  However, it is the back roads -- what William Least Heat Moon wrote about in his book "Blue Highway" -- that call to me.  I seek the human relationship to place where symbols and signs, past and present, the whimsical, the iconic and the ironic are often blended by the passage of time.  My subjects are the obscure and the transitory.  They are not hidden, but they are seldom noticed by the passer-by.   For me, these symbols of man combine with the ever-present and ever-changing symbols of nature to reveal an enigmatic picture of life. My natural landscapes serve as a foil for the social landscapes.

 It is this landscape that interest me most.  These images represent my individual response to things -- as I see them -- in my travels.  They are documentary only in the sense that they present highly detailed visual record of sometimes isolated areas and things. More importantly, these photographs give form to my visual impressions.  The heartland is marked by decay and a slow evolution towards a more contemporary time as evidenced through personal expression of rugged individualism. 

I photograph to validate an existence, and for the sheer ecstasy of pleasure I feel at that moment when the dialogue between myself and the subject reveals what Vincent van Gogh called "...a feeling for the things in themselves."  It is a passage from things seen to things known.