Fraser Gallery: Bethesda

MAXWELL MACKENZIE

The Fraser Gallery is pleased to represent aerial photographs of Vermont, Virginia and Minnesota by DC based photographer, Maxwell MacKenzie.

These images constitute both a continuation and an extension of what began, in 1989, as a deeply personal exploration into my own family's history.

A selection of work from the first 10 years of this project has been collected into two volumes. The first is "Abandonings; Photographs of Otter Tail County, Minnesota" consisting of 28 color panoramic photographs of abandoned schools, barns and farmhouses, set in the agricultural landscape of my birthplace in western Minnesota, remnants of my maternal Scandinavian ancestors lives there, now all but passed away.

The 30 images in the second book, "American Ruins, Ghosts on the Landscape," were selected from hundreds taken over four years on numerous road trips back to Wisconsin and Minnesota, and further on to Montana, Idaho and the Dakotas. They represent an attempt to broaden my search and to further refine the themes developed in the earlier work. The important difference is that in place of my former color palette, I restricted myself to black and white, with the aim of simplifying and distilling the essence of these beautiful and fast vanishing structures.

In all I do, I simply strive to show the viewer what I saw, as clearly as I can: the beauty of man's humble and temporary efforts under a vast and glorious sky."

Photographs are available in the following sizes and editions.

13" x 21" Edition of 50

20" x 30" Edition of 50

30" x 14" Edition of 50

For more information, please call the gallery at (301) 718-9651 or send e-mail to info@thefrasergallery.com.

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"Near Nanzatico Bay, King George County, Virginia, 2010"