Neptune
Blue Tape
Today was the Medium Festival of Photography and the community print hang. Just before leaving my house, I decided to make a mini photo installation for the print hang. My plan was to create a rectangle with blue painter’s tape, photograph it with Instax film, and then place the photograph inside the taped rectangle on the wall. I thought it would be a funny way to show that I had made it in the museum that very day.
This year, the festival was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. I arrived early to create and install the piece before anyone else had put their art on the wall. It took me about five shots to get it right. I had to use the close-up adapter, something I had never used before.
The final photograph came out exactly as I had envisioned it. Shortly after other people started hanging their pictures, my friend Patricia told me museum staff made her remove the “blue tape frame” from around my photograph. I found this hilarious! Every picture on the wall was attached with blue painter’s tape on the backs of the prints. Apparently, the Museum of Contemporary Art is too snooty for exposed blue tape on its wall!
Later, a person came up to me to confirm that the photograph, Blue Tape, was mine and asked if I would be willing to give it to them. I was surprised that someone would like my art and nervous about giving away something I had just made. I asked for some time to think about parting with the photograph.
I decided it would be better for Blue Tape to be enjoyed on their wall than for me to put it in a box in my studio. It was a little scary, but in the end, it felt good to give it away. Seeing how excited they were reassured me that I had made the right decision.
Pipeline
In 2016, I was on the North Shore of Oʻahu. An early-season swell was building in the ocean, and I quickly realized I was well past my limit. The joy I initially felt being in the water turned into fear. I carefully navigated my way back to the beach between sets of massive walls of water. Grateful to be back on solid ground, I stopped and asked a surf photographer, “What is the name of that wave?” He pointed at the next set detonating on the reef and said, “That’s Pipeline.” I had been surfing the most famous wave in the world—and didn’t even know it. I sat on the beach, hypnotized by the ocean folding over the reef. It was like seeing my first unicorn—my brain was melting.
To the Moon and Back
Lynn Snowstorm, 2016 © Traverse Day Robinette
You always fall asleep when we watch movies. I listen to you dream as the world turns white.
Great Sand Dunes National Park: Star Dune, Colorado, 2017 © Traverse Day Robinette
It felt like we were barely making progress as we climbed the sand dunes. I didn’t think we would make it. We had no idea how much further it was, but we knew we were close. You announced that you’re going to the top and like that you took off. Because of you we summited the dune at the exact moment the sun set.
Skogafoss, Iceland, 2014 © Traverse Day Robinette
Rain, snow, wind, and sun we took it all in as we traveled around the island. We made it our mission to see the northern lights, this consisted of many late nights sitting in the dark and waiting. At the end of our trip in a field with horses grazing by the ocean, we saw the night’s sky painted green with an invisible brush.
Herring Cove Beach, Cape Cod, 2017 © Traverse Day Robinette
Biking under the hot summer sun, we found utopia at the end of Cape Cod.
Echo Lake, Acadia, 2018 © Traverse Day Robinette
Lazy afternoons spent swimming in the cool clear water, followed by reading and napping on a bed of soft pine needles. Echo Lake was our home away from home.
I close my eyes and I can clearly see these moments. I hold them tightly in my mind and daydream of our future.
Chrome Life
I got into slide film by chance. I was at school and my friend Eddy Pula was shooting some 4x5 slides. He asked me if I would like to try a sheet. I had always heard that shooting slide film was tricky, and they only looked good if properly exposed. I was strictly a black and white photographer at the time and didn't care for color film but was curious what shooting on slide film would be like. I took up Eddy's offer and had no idea it would change my way of capturing light for the next decade.
Gloucester: My First Slide, 2008
PB&J, 2009
Pepperell Backyard, 2009
The moment my friends learned I liked slide film, I was given many free rolls of expired tungsten and daylight balanced 35mm slide film. After shooting expired slide film for a while I was given a box of expired 8x10 slide film and I even scored a batch of Kodachrome which I shot all summer until it was gone.
Expired Tungsten Film: Night Walk on Silsbee Street, Lynn MA, 2016
Expired 8x10 Film: Middlesex Fells, 2012
Expired Kodachrome: Reilly Memorial Swimming Pool, 2009
I then learned of the black and white reversal process and started shooting black and white slides and fell in love all over again.
Black & White Reversal Process: Paige & Briggs, 2009
Perfect Summer Day
Perfect Summer Day 1, 2017 © Traverse Day Robinette
Cooling off in tubs of water in the garden. Pretending we were dinosaurs roaming the woods of a prehistoric forest. A backyard cookout and dinner on the porch. We watched the bats come out and my nephew caught his first firefly. We listened to my Grandmother and Dad play guitars. We gathered around the fire and told stories while my Grandfather had his first s'more. It was a perfect day!
Perfect Summer Day 2, 2017 © Traverse Day Robinette
Perfect Summer Day 3, 2017 © Traverse Day Robinette
Perfect Summer Day 4, 2017 © Traverse Day Robinette
Perfect Summer Day 5, 2017 © Traverse Day Robinette
Perfect Summer Day 6, 2017 © Traverse Day Robinette
Perfect Summer Day 7, 2017 © Traverse Day Robinette
Perfect Summer Day 8, 2017 © Traverse Day Robinette
Perfect Summer Day 9, 2017 © Traverse Day Robinette