For the week of February 5 - 11, 2003

Getting perspective
on place

Tim Brown exhibits work at Big Wood Bread

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By ADAM TANOUS
Express Arts Editor

What is Sun Valley, exactly? What is it not? Few questions could be more relevant to the ongoing community-wide debate than these, whether it’s highways or hotels we’re talking about. They are also at the center of a new photographic show by Wood River Valley photographer Tim Brown. The works are exhibited at Big Wood Bread in the Ketchum Industrial Park.

Brown is showing 18 pieces grouped around the theme of "What is Sun Valley, what is it not?" Included are shots taken in the area; others are from further afield like Manhattan and the harbor at Cabo San Lucas. All are beautifully mounted on brushed galvanized steel, a framing system that Brown developed.

"I’m always trying to look for a different perspective. It’s hard, though, because people have tried just about everything," Brown said in an interview last week.

Despite his comment, it is apparent that Brown has largely succeeded. For instance, he has a shot of a ski run on Baldy and the town of Ketchum below, but it is taken from the perspective of a paraglider. Brown was riding in front of a tandem paraglider when he took the photograph. The ski run, Upper College, looks eerily flat and symmetrical, almost out of place as the town looms below. It is an unusual and affecting photograph.

In another photograph, Brown stood on an 8-foot ladder to get a shot of ice skater Darlin Baker while she was performing. That the perspective is slightly off vertical makes all the difference. The image defies expectations and, therefore, draws one into it. Other photographs in the show include ones Brown took while rock climbing, one of a swimmer in winter with Baldy in the background, and a shot of Olympic gold medalist Picabo Street in a racing tuck that, though she is obviously standing still, looks to be moving at her usual high speeds right into the camera.

Brown, who grew up in Sun Valley, learned most of his photographic skills at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he earned a bachelor’s of fine arts degree. He then went on to work on the photographic staffs of Patagonia, Black Diamond and Sports Illustrated. He has since built a strong business of shooting architectural photographs. He said he likes architectural work because "it is hard to do. Getting the lighting and composition right is difficult—to make it look natural, you often have to move things around quite a bit."

As to his outdoors and sports photography, Brown said some photographs are just spontaneous creations. For others he will set up the background and try to anticipate how the subject of the photograph is likely to move through the background. He said it’s impossible to know exactly what angle he’s going to get.

In addition to his architectural work, Brown is continuing to work on new projects. One will involve shooting and chronicling the history of one of the largest ranches in Arizona.

The exhibit at Big Wood Bread will be up through March.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.