Canyon
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Actually · driftwood, hand-sized
Erosion lines the tide cut, read as cliffs.
Artist statement
Walk the Oregon coast long enough and you stop seeing driftwood as debris and start seeing landscapes inside it. Each photograph is a single found piece of beach wood, shot close and in black and white so the grain does the work. Nothing is staged. The hidden scene was always there. The camera just gets close enough to show it.
— Phil Johnston, II
The work
Found, not staged
Each is a hand-sized piece of Oregon driftwood, shot close in black and white. Hover a frame to see what you're really looking at.
Cityscape
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Actually · driftwood, hand-sized
Cracks and ridges that line up like a skyline at distance.
More from the show
About
Phil Johnston, II is a photographer based near Portland, Oregon. His work finds whole landscapes in small things the coast leaves behind: driftwood, tide lines, and the shapes sand and water build when no one is watching.
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