Donnell Ranch, Sonoma, California
2005
panoramic photograph, inkjet print
26.5" x 6.5 "

Minimum Bid: $300

James Sheldon

Bio: James Sheldon is a photographer, documentary filmmaker, curator, and educator who has worked extensively in multimedia applications. Currently he is producing a series of interactive on-line documentaries for the Cultural Landscape Foundation. The series includes Columbus Park, The Prairie Idealized (2002), The Olmsteds & Louisville: City Shaping by Design (2006), and Icons of Modernism: The Miller and Donnell Gardens (in production). Other projects include several Internet and exhibition applications for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Exploring the Art and Science of Stopping Time: The Life and Work of Harold E. Edgerton (published by the MIT Press); and Eadweard Muybridge: Motion Studies (published by the Voyager Company). He is a Professor of Interactive Media at Emerson College, Boston. Prior to this he was a Curator at the Addison Gallery of American Art.

Artist Statement: The view is from the top of the Donnell Ranch in Sonoma, California, overlooking San Francisco Bay. In the photograph the Donnell house and garden are in the live oak grove on the left, and the Pacific Ocean is beyond the hills in the far distance on the right. The Sonoma Valley is over the high point at the far right, behind or south of the nodal point. Chinese landscape scrolls give the viewer the experience of traveling. A walk offers changing views and light, and the opportunity to be immersed in the experience of place from numerous points of view. Panoramic photographs are for me a way to do the same thing. The careful choice of position and 360-degree camera rotation in my panoramic images offer the viewer an understanding of light, space, composition, and the color. In designed landscapes the panoramic view also shows the intent of the designer. Panoramic images in the interactive applications I produce give the user the ability to navigate multiple views of each site by rotating the view window. In contrast, panoramic prints give the viewer an experience of the whole, with the opportunity for change of focus over time within the 2-dimensional print space.