It was an open-ended assignment. Photograph anything you that interests you visually.

This was for an undergrad photography I course I was not in, but apparently there is a stock response. “Beach” is a favorite subject among beginning photo students. I can attest to this. For a similar assignment during my undergrad years, I had to photograph my Thanksgiving break – and part of it was beachside on the Patuxent River.

Evidently this beach reaction causes various professors to roll their inner eyes. So, beginning photo people, if you are reading this–there is a lesson here, and it is not beach avoidance. Instead ask yourself what draws you to a shoreline. Shells? Textures? Scantily clad folks (hey, it could be legit)? It is in these questions and answers that maketh a decent image, instead a cliché.

And here I am, 18 credits (if I pass my instructional design class) into my MFA and I am about to exhibit beach photos at the upcoming MFA Photography Show at the McConnell Library. Ha! Roll your eyes at this one, friend.

The images are a series of four photographs from Shackleford Banks in North Carolina, and yes, they are from the one pseudo-vacation we took this summer. And this beach, available via ferry from Beaufort, North Carolina, was a place of my choice to photograph. I went looking for wild horses. And yes, Ken found them for me, but they are not seen the photos I am showing.

Thus I present you with my artist’s statement.

L.S. King asked herself what would she want to remember visually from a visit to Shackleford Banks, North Carolina. Though it was a hunt for wild horses that took her to this small island, it was being immersed in a quiet world of dramatic light, clouds and texture, which inspired these images. There was something in the way that beach came alive, providing a sanctuary for birds, beasts and wandering, souls, seeking distance from humanity’s effects, but all of whom were not quite ready to leave it all behind for complete isolation. For this remembrance, King used Piezography. This is an archival, digital printing process, which in her case uses six different neutral hues of black ink to produce the tonally rich greys seen in the images. All are printed on Hahnemule Photo Rag Paper.

So, there you go.

To see my Shackleford Banks Series (and seriously, the Internet version does not do them justice), along with Langley Anderson’s micrography and Kaitlynn Slaughter’s Civil War re-enactment photographs (you will meet her tomorrow night on the blog), here’s the basics:

Radford University MFA Show
Opening Reception: Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 3:30 p.m.
Exhibition dates: Oct. 4 – Nov. 8
McConnell Library 3rd Floor Event Space, Radford University, Radford, Virginia.

Admission is free.

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