Russell Hart (Artist-in-Residence, 2013)

"Untitled 1", photograph, 2013

NPS/Russell Hart

Isle Royale Reflection

"Time may have idealized my memories of being on Isle Royale. After all, I fell out of our canoe more than once, camera in hand, as I tried to deposit my fellow artist-in-residence on the small wharf down the hill from our cabin. Among other things, hauling water up from the lake to the cabin and taking outside showers while being swarmed by big black stinging flies made the experience somewhat arduous for us city folk!

That was okay, though, because I believe arduousness is, and should be, a part of art. If art and the artist’s process are easy, then there’s a good chance the resulting art will be uninspired. Art requires effort, and in true art I think this effort shows in the work itself."

• Read Russell's complete reflection

 

"Untitled 2", photograph, 2013

NPS/Russell Hart

"Isle Royale" - a poem by Russell

Copper aspires
to lichen in this alloyed land,
weathered blue
and burnished thin by sand.

Scrolling birch
inscribes the primal tales
of measured change
and snapping off in gales.

Loons inquire,
the answer a persistent gaze.
Their raft compels
disinterest in our praise.

Cold holes in stone
recall a distant blast,
empty reliquaries
of a fire-forged past.

Wolves return on ice
to save the vaunted line,
longing for moose
and waiting for a sign.

 

Russell Hart (right) with friend and Co-Artist-in-Residence John Isaac

About the Artist

Russell Hart was an Isle Royale Artist-in-Residence from August 9th to August 24th, 2013. His work has been exhibited at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Newport Art Museum, Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, Harvard University’s Carpenter Center, the Addison Gallery of American Art, and the DeCordova Museum. His prints are in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Rose Gallery at Brandeis University, among others. Hart is on the faculty of the master’s in digital photography program at New York’s School of Visual Arts, and has taught at Tufts University and the Boston Museum School.

Hart was for many years the Executive Editor of American Photo magazine. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Men's Journal, and Us magazines. He has won the Griffin Museum of Photography’s Susan Sontag Scribe Award and ASME’s National Magazine Award for General Excellence while at American Photo. Hart wrote Photography For Dummies and co-authored Prentice-Hall’s college textbook Photography. Visit Russell's personal webpage to see more of his work. He is also active on Facebook and Instagram/russellhartphoto.

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