Wilbur Working In His Bike Shop

Wright Brothers: Then and Now photography series

This one of the early photographs that Orville took of Wilbur working in one of their bike shops. The historic photograph was taken in 1897 so a few years before they were concentrating their efforts on flight. This is one of my images that was well thought out. I liked the historic photograph and I liked the quote from their nephew. All I had to do was take a photograph inside one of their bike shops and hope they work well together. I went to the bike shop in Dayton, Ohio which is part of the National Park. What I didn’t know is how well the two photographs would fit together. In the historic photograph Wilbur is working on a lathe. At the bike shop there was the actual lathe he had worked on in the old photograph. Many of the tool scattered on the work bench are the Wrights actual tools. I like the history of the old photograph with the history of the old tool in me photograph. I was able to include the floor from my recent photograph throughout the entire photograph, so it looks like Wilbur is standing on the current day wood floor. I like playing with time and space in these photographs.

The quote from nephew Milton Wright in 1904 from a newspaper interview. “History was being made in their bicycle shop and in their home but the making was so obscured by the common place I did not recognize it until many years later.

To see more photographs from this series go to ClearyFineArtPhoto.com.

I have an art show up at Grace Methodist church gallery right now. Oh course no one can see it. I have another show scheduled for April 23rd at The Light Factory gallery, http://lightfactory.org/exhibitions-upcoming/, Charlotte, NC. The gallery is closed for now and we don't know when it will reopen. I am showing my Wight Brother - Then and Now series at both locations. Because no one can go see the show. I am going to bring the show to you. Here is my artist statement for the Light Factory show.

"On a tranquil and slightly snowy day in February 2016 I decided to go see Huffman Prairie in Dayton, Ohio where the Wright Brothers perfected flight. Dayton is my hometown and yet I had never visited. Standing there on that cold and snowy day transformed me. I could feel the fluctuation of past and present. The seeds for this body of work were planted in my heart.  My series of photographs, Wright Brothers-Then and Now, is about the past mingling with the present. The Wright Brothers were accomplished photographers and used photography in their process of discovery. Through research I found many historic images taken by the Wright Brothers and others whose locations I could still access. I began traveling to many of these locations and creating my own images. The locations include areas of Dayton, Kitty Hawk, NC, Washington, DC, Detroit, MI, and LeMans and Pau, France. I digitally combine my images with the historic photographs blurring the divisions between then and now to create visual fluctuations. I decided to add a personal narrative taken from writings of the time to this series of photographs. The narratives are as much about the people behind the history as they are responses to the places and events, making each image more vibrant and meaningful."

I started this series in 2016. I'll post a few images each day from the series for the next week or so. I am editing my fine art website and am almost finished. That site is http://clearyfineartphoto.com/.

The first image is Wilbur working in their bike shop in 1897. The historic photo was probably taken by Orville. I went to the National Park off of west third street and created an interior photograph that would match the historic photo. I my photograph and the historic photograph there are matching machinery. I like the quote from their nephew "History was being in their bicycle shop and in their home, but the making was so obscured by the common place I did not recognize it until it until many years later."

Orville was interested in photography and I can imagine he took his camera outside his home to take a photo. A little kid in the neighborhood, Daniel Henderson, saw him with his camera and was curious. Orville included Daniel in his photograph which was taken in 1899. I took my photograph at 7 Hawthorn Street. This is one of the more complicated integrations of old and new photographs. The quote is from a speech Wilbur made in 1910. "If I were to give a young man advice as to how he might succeed in life. I would say to him, pick a good Father and Mother and begin life in Ohio."

This summer I traveled to the western states of Arizona, Nevada and Utah. It was my first trip to the Grand Canyon. This area of our country was absolutely beautiful. Here are my first set of finished images from the trip. I went to Santa Fe, New Mexico, Sedona, Arizona, The Grand Canyon and Moab, Utah. Canyonland and Arches national parks are just outside Moab, Utah. The first image I created from the Grand Canyon is a panorama image I created from 8 separate exposures. I spend time in PhotoShop with each image working them until each photographs is exactly my vision.