Seascapes

In 2002, Alison rented a place in Provincetown, so she could spend a couple of weeks photographing artist studios, and shooting seascapes. At the beach, she started experimenting with different ways of shooting, including moving her camera while the shutter was open. She was never sure what she was getting, using a film camera and having to wait for the chromes to be processed in Boston and shipped back to her. But there were a few keepers, and she was inspired to keep working at her new technique.

Rock Harbor IV 2003

As time went on, Alison stayed fascinated with moving the camera as she was shooting. Honestly, there were some colossal failures along the way. Sue remembers one show opening, where she overheard a woman say ”It‘s Alison Shaw, so these must be good. But all I see is blur. I don’t get it.“ Thankfully, Alison wasn‘t discouraged – there were just enough successes that she kept with it. Then she read that the definition of photography is “painting with light.“ That‘s literally what she was doing – using her camera as a paintbrush. She‘d focused on painting when she was young, and this felt like a true expression of her artistry.

Her goal was to capture the feeling of what she was seeing. The artists’ studios series was so bold, hard-edged, carefully-composed. She was looking for a method that was imperfect, soft, evocative. To feel an image, rather than see it.

In October of 2005, thanks to an artist‘s grant, Alison had the opportunity to spend two weeks in “Boris,” a 12′ x 8′ shack at the remote tip of Cape Cod, nestled into a dune and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. There was no running water, no electricity, no heat, and no easy access (it was a half-hour hike up and over the dunes to reach the nearest road). She had just turned 50 the week before, and needed some me time (with her camera).

Boris

Each morning, she pumped water from a nearby well into gallon jugs, and hauled them up to the shack – for drinking, cooking on the small gas stove, and the solar shower she‘d rigged up. There was an outhouse down the hill. At night she lit kerosene lanterns to cook and read by. She collected wild cranberries, and even tried (unsuccessfully) to fish for her dinner. Her daily routine followed the natural rhythm of the sun, going to bed early and rising at dawn.

The simplicity of these chilly, often rainy couple of weeks forced Alison to distill her days down to their essence. So she decided to try and capture this essence, this simplicity, in her photography as well.

Hoping to evoke the feelings she was experiencing, Alison was moved to keep perfecting her technique of using the camera as a paintbrush, moving it while the shutter was open, “painting with light.” After all the experimentation she‘d done, one simple technique had emerged as the truest expression. Her time at the dune shack became about perfecting this one method, relying on her instincts to get what she wanted.