The Spirit Of Americana In Rural Landscapes

Edge of Humanity Magazine

8 hours ago

Photographer Paul Malinowski is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this landscape photography. From the project ‘Americana’. To see Paul’s body of work, click on any photograph.

America the beautiful
San Luis Valley, Colorado

Color Coordinated
San Luis Valley, Colorado

Pennsylvania Mine
Summit County, Colorado

The Old Drive-In
San Luis Valley, Colorado

Lobatos Bridge
San Luis Valley, Colorado

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Paul loved many things about growing up in Chicago, of which two were his favorites: Wrigley Field (home of the baseball Cubs) and the Art Institute (home of his beloved Constable and Hopper paintings among many others).

He received his BA from Beloit (Wisconsin) College and then a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His love of art transitioned into a love of photography when he picked up a Konica Rangefinder camera in college. He self-taught photography himself by purchasing the entire multiple-volume collection of the beautifully written and bound Time Life series on photography. He eventually bought himself an enlarger and darkroom supplies and turned his apartment’s only bathroom into a fully functional darkroom (thus decreasing the functionality of the bathroom for its intended purpose).

And then life hit. Family, a non-art career, and long-term family caregiving combined to set the photography aside for many years. At least creativity was not lost during those years as he pursued acting and writing for theater where he successfully self-produced a full-length play he authored. He also studied Eastern and metaphysical spirituality during that time that exposed him to the art of the “present moment”, thus opening him to begin to “see” things differently, a staple of his current photography.

He finally resumed photography with a vengeance about fifteen years ago. Just before the digital boom he resumed working in a darkroom, this time in a rented darkroom space. That print process has enabled him to recognize how to effectively envision a final “print”, whether on paper or digitally.

Whenever he takes a photograph, his goal is to visually interpret the present moment, no matter what the subject is. He strives to discover the unique point of view, whether that be a story, bird in flight, or play of light, and then turn that into a photograph. Many of his photographs project an air of mystery – what is the subject? What is the story?  Paul uses post-processing to lightly edit his photos but does not use compositing techniques such as sky replacement, opting more for a journalistic look than one of pure art.

Paul’s favorite genres of his photographs are architecture, birds and Americana. The Americana series was primarily shot in the San Luis Valley in southwestern Colorado. Like so many rural parts of America, the once thriving agricultural industry (as well as the silver mining industry in the mountains here) has fallen on hard times, leaving behind “forgotten” places that Paul has tried to capture before they are not just physically gone but also deleted from our collective memory.

He is fortunate to live in beautiful Colorado, but he believes in seeing a potentially interesting image in any place at any time. That is why the tag line of his website is "Visually interpreting the present moment".

Paul’s photographs have been selected in over 80 juried competition art shows from San Francisco to New York, Chicago to Houston, Oregon to the Carolinas and, of course, his home state of Colorado.

All images and text © Paul Malinowski