Michael Strain “Agua – Water Infrastructure –
Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guanajuato, Yucatán and Guatemala”

January 4 – February 27, 2025
Artist reception on January 4 from 1-4 pm.

The O’Brien Photo Gallery
2833 Willamette, Ste. B.
Eugene, OR 97405
Phone: (541) 729-3572
Open weekdays from 1-5 pm.
Call to be sure we’re open or to makes special viewing arrangements.
https://www.waltobrien.net/the…

These images are abstracts from our built environment “infrastructure” highlighting the means of water distribution in places where I’ve travelled including Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guanajuato, and the Yucatan in Mexico, and the Sololá (Lake Atitlan) Department of Guatemala.

The viewer is invited to consider the objects in the photograph as compositional elements… rather than being the subject of the photograph per se. In this approach the intended subject is the composition itself, comprised of the geometrical, texture, color relationships, and cultural associations of the various objects. The photograph is an “abstract” or sample seen from a particular point of view.

However, implicit in the series is recognition of the global challenges and equity of obtaining safe drinking water and the illustration of some of the means by which people have adapted.

These photographs in this group were all taken with an iPhone.

Growing up in Montana, Michael Strain was first introduced to photography and darkroom work by his grandmother at about age eight. In college he managed the darkroom in his dorm while narrowly missing the popular photography courses taught at MIT by Minor White. In the mid-1970’s he began working with large format cameras and produced a series of one-of-a-kind 8×10 color Polaroid images taken with a home-built view camera.

Recently retired as an instrumentation scientist at the University of Oregon, Strain has renewed his photographic efforts, but now using an iPhone as a primary tool. The phone is kind of like a miniature view camera with a wide-angle lens. It is appealing because of its small, inconspicuous size making it perfect for international travel and spontaneity. Modern ink-jet printers capture the crisp, brilliant colors that drew him to the color Polaroid medium of days gone by.

https://www.photozonegallery.c…

Email: michael.strain@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/micha…