"Lick creek Line extends and amplifies Ron Jude’s ongoing fascination with
the vagaries of photographic empiricism, and the gray area between documentation and
fiction. In a sequential narrative punctuated by contrasting moments of violence and
beauty, Jude follows the rambling journey of a fur trapper, methodically checking his trap
line in a remote area of Idaho in the Western United States. Through converging pictures of
landscapes, architecture, an encroaching resort community, and the solitary, secretive
process of trapping pine marten for their pelts, Lick Creek Line underscores the murky and
culturally arbitrary nature of moral critique.
With an undercurrent of mystery and melancholy that echoes Jude’s previous two books
about his childhood home of Central Idaho, Lick Creek Line serves as the linchpin in a
multi-faceted, three-part look at the incomprehensibility of self and place through
photographic narrative. While Alpine Star functioned as a fictitious sociological archive, and
Emmett explored the muddy waters of memory and autobiography, Lick Creek Line finds its
tenor through the sleight-of-hand structure of a traditional photo essay."
the vagaries of photographic empiricism, and the gray area between documentation and
fiction. In a sequential narrative punctuated by contrasting moments of violence and
beauty, Jude follows the rambling journey of a fur trapper, methodically checking his trap
line in a remote area of Idaho in the Western United States. Through converging pictures of
landscapes, architecture, an encroaching resort community, and the solitary, secretive
process of trapping pine marten for their pelts, Lick Creek Line underscores the murky and
culturally arbitrary nature of moral critique.
With an undercurrent of mystery and melancholy that echoes Jude’s previous two books
about his childhood home of Central Idaho, Lick Creek Line serves as the linchpin in a
multi-faceted, three-part look at the incomprehensibility of self and place through
photographic narrative. While Alpine Star functioned as a fictitious sociological archive, and
Emmett explored the muddy waters of memory and autobiography, Lick Creek Line finds its
tenor through the sleight-of-hand structure of a traditional photo essay."
This book is printed on matt paper which creates a lovely soft texture to the printed image. This texture softens the prints and removes sharpness slightly which creates a smoothness. The work is interesting, and for me in relation to the project it documents wild environments and a persons travels. The photographs are classic in style and although I find these less interesting do work in the way we expect to see a narrative constructed and is perhaps something I can consider towards the end of my project when sequencing. This gray area that he is exploring is continued by the reference and not visual representation of trapping, we never see a trap only a man kneeling over an object, this is echoed in my own work where currently the process is removing the river. Which is the main focal point, this connotes a loss and is something I am concentrating on exploring further.
Melancholy is a really good area for me to further my research.
Melancholy is a really good area for me to further my research.