False Mountains.... cont'd

False Drumlin  Yardley, Pa  (2011)

I continue to be intrigued by the appearance of false mountain-scapes along the roadsides.They often appear out of nowhere, driving around a bend in the road my eye is suddenly drawn to the shape of a mountain in my peripheral vision. There is always a brief sense of letdown at the realization that what I am seeing is only a man made pile of dirt or structural object and not part of the natural landscape. But as I study these more carefully I find that many are acting as little geographic emulations. What starts out as just a huge pile of soil created next to a large construction site fairly quickly erodes via rain and wind into a similar shape and form that a natural mountain range would take a million years to transform into. The soil pile shown above has eroded into what looks to me like a drumlin, the glacial formed mounds seen across Wisconsin and north to Ontario.

Drumlins  Ontario, Canada (2010)

I'm trying to capture images that conjure up the traditional travelscape... images taken by the hundreds of thousands at scenic overview pull-offs along alpine highways. Get out and stretch the legs and submit to the overwhelming compulsion to capture the majestic scenery. A satirical play on photographic cliche, these images also probably represent a partial escape from the banalities I so often favor in my images.Scenic alpine views don't exist for me on the urban and suburban roadways of Philadelphia, so I have to build them from my imagination...

from False Mountains series
Christopher Paquette (2010-2011)

Previous discussion of False Mountains is here