Crane Photography - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Crane Photography

North Dakota early pioneer history is drawing people from across the country.
They're coming however not to study it as it was but to photograph it as it is today.
Shaun Sipma caught up with the lead man behind the lens on his latest trip near Rugby.

..{crickets, camera lick}

(Tillman Crane, Photographer) "We're visual archaeologist, we're looking at the structures as nature's taking them back over."

In our busy lives, they often go un-noticed, a relic of the past, a glimpse to simpler days.

(Tillman Crane, Photographer) "They're returning to their natural state and gradually being consumed but they're elegant.  There's an elegance the way they sit in the landscape, the pioneers that built them, the homesteaders situated them in an absolutely beautiful locations."

For Tillman Crane, it's the aging of a high plains chapel and its decay that makes it art and a worth while trip all the way from Maine to photograph.

Crane, with his Spirit of Structure Workshop, is leading people from across the country at sites like this in North Dakota as they explore not only the visual depth of the photograph but the depth of person behind the lens.

(Tillman Crane, Photographer) The emphasis of the workshop is looking for your own past.  Everybody brings their own story to these locations and has their own issues that they deal with and so it's a location that becomes a set for us as artists to explore our own past."

And you thought a photograph was just for looking at.

Tillman Crane has been behind the camera for more than 30 years, spending much of his time with a camera that itself is from another time.

(Tillman Crane, Photographer) "I make what are called platinum prints.  They are hand coated hand made print and the print is the size of the negative.

A little different than today's digital cameras.
Crane says the View Camera offers a unique aspect that helps separate the ordinary and extraordinary.

(Tillman Crane, Photographer) It allows me to see the world upside down and backwards.  When I'm looking on that ground glass the image is inverted and so it's already abstracted so I'm not worrying about the subject I'm worrying about the composition fills the frame and the way it fits in that glass."

In a way the camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.

(Tillman Crane, Photographer) "15 people can go to the same location and they make different pictures.  Everybody has a different story to tell about that location.

We'll hear their story about the location and the experience tomorrow.
Near Rugby Shaun Sipma KX News.

Crane says some photographers have come back three different times to the workshop in North Dakota because of it's uniqueness that challenges the artistic process.