THE PINES: Project Notes

I started photographing in the Pine Barrens in the late 1970's. Like many residents of New Jersey I often drove through the "pines" on my way to the ocean, but never took the time to explore the area until a family friend, Tom Maloney, took me for a trek one summer weekend through some of the windy, back roads in his 4 wheel drive Travelall. Tom was the founder and editor of the original US Camera Annual and had been in love with the Pine Barrens for years. He later gave me a copy of John McPhee's great book "The Pine Barrens" and I was hooked.

Shortly thereafter I started going on hikes and canoe trips with my cameras, and began my own love affair with the Pines.

Home to thousands of miles of dirt and sand roads, hundreds of miles of quiet, clear rivers, the 1.1 million acre Pinelands National Reserve sits, incongruously, in the country's most densely populated state, half way between New York City and Philadelphia. Also home to carnivorous plants, black bear, bobcats, bald eagles and the Jersey Devil, the Pine Barrens is critical to recharging the 17 trillion gallon Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer which contains some of the purest water in our country.

I recieved a couple of grants to pursue my photgraphy in the Pines which culminated in several shows and magazine stories.

In a review of one of my shows Robert Shirey, in the Sunday New York Times, wrote:

"Were we to visit the Pine Barrens, we might not see the same things Richard Speedy saw. Most of us do not have his poetic vision or his instantaneous grasping of the beautiful in nature, or his fantasy. At times, the pictures look like storybook images, as in one photograph of mushrooms with their long stalks and umbrella caps amidst a blur of plants, they are creatures of another world."

By the early 80's I was on to other endeavors. Then after living in Mexico for an extended period I returned to New Jersey two years ago and resumed my work in the Pine Barrens. I always felt there was more to do, so I am doing it now.

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Images are reproduced as archival pigment ink prints on Museo Silver Rag Paper. This paper is lush and rich, delivering great depth and detail along with high D-max and superior tonal range. It has the look and feel of a traditional fiber print and is 100% cotton, acid free, lignin-free, internally buffered and has no optical brighteners.

Print Editions

25 - 6 x 8 on 16 x 20 Paper

25 - 9 x 12 on 17 x 22 Paper

25 - 14 x 20.5 on 17 x 22 Paper

15 - 24 x 32 on 30 x 40 Paper (Selected Images)

Archivally boxed limited edition portfolios (not yet available)

10 - Artist Proofs

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