Beth Dow

Title: Coaster (part of the "Ruins" collection)

Artist: Beth Dow

Medium:

Year:2009



Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?

Beth Dow keeps most of her images black and white. I like her images, but they seems maybe a little low contrast, or that there are more grays than any solid black or solid white. However, by looking at most of her images, I think this works for her. She found a way she likes her images and I think it takes some getting used to, but I really found that I liked them. I chose a rather recent image, called Coaster, and before reading about it, I thought to myself, "this really looks like something from the theme park Mt. Olympus in the Wisconsin Dells. Turns out, most of the pictures taken in her "ruins" collection are in fact from around Wisconsin Dells. She and her husband took their children on a vacation and she got a little inspiration from the architecture around the Dells.







Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

I think this image is really beautiful because it leaves me wanting more. I want to see more of the roller coaster, I want to be in that theme park, and I want to see what's next. As a whole, the "ruins" project was really interesting, especially knowing it was architecture from very touristy spots. I would have been easily fooled had I not been to the Wisconsin Dells myself a few years back.







Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Shannon