August 5 - September 11, 2010
The Unapologetic Landscape: Photographs by Chuck Kimmerle
The Unapologetic Landscape is a selection of 48 black and white photographs. It represents Kimmerle’s exploration of the visual elements that help define the landscape and, by definition, the inhabitants of the agriculturally impacted northern plains of North Dakota. The local landscape, devoid of natural grandiosity, such as mountain and ocean vistas, is more often travelled through than intentionally visited. At first glance it looks dull, mundane. Those were the artist’s very thoughts upon arriving in North Dakota 14 years ago. However, since that time, he has gained an intense appreciation of, and affection for, the unique environmental elements – field, shelterbelts, crop rows, flat horizons, farmsteads, sky, gravel roadways, and silence - that give this landscape its unique and proud identity.
Kimmerle uses no travel guide or map to direct him towards the subjects of his photographs. Consequently, he spends many hours and many miles, exploring back roads. He feels that these times are not wasted as it allows him the opportunity “to get in tune with the pastoral simplicity of the land, to leave behind the rigors of daily life; a requisite necessary to truly see what lies before me.”
If nothing else, Kimmerle hopes the viewer of his images will gain an appreciation for the beautiful simplicity of the northern plains. “A simplicity that is as proud and unapologetic.”
