THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: A PORTFOLIO
FIRST OUT OF MY 2023 AROUND-THE-WORLD TOUR: THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST PORTFOLIO
We all have our dream destinations, and trips that we hope to be able to do in our lifetime. Oftentimes, these destinations are far away from home, and those trips are tough to organise and make happen. Some of the farthermost places I always hoped to visit, explore and photograph are Australia, New Zealand and Easter Island. Not as remote from where I live, but equally high on my list of destinations to portray, is the USA side of the Pacific Northwest. In particular, the Oregon Coast and Olympic National Park.
In the second half of 2023, my wife and I decided to group all these destinations together on a single, four-month trip all around the world. During our time away from home, we dedicated two weeks to exploring a part of Australia’s southeastern coast, we spent one and a half month in New Zealand, we stayed for an unforgettable week on Easter Island, and we spent the last month and a half of the trip in the Pacific Northwest, photographing the Oregon Coast and inland, and Olympic National Park.
Along for the journey, I took with me my beloved and trusted Phase One IQ4 Achromatic, together with my custom-assembled Alpa 12 STC, four lenses ranging between 23mm and 180mm (about 16mm to 115mm FOV equivalent in so-called Full Frame terms), my FLM tripod, my filter kit and – as a backup – my Leica M11 Monochrom with a couple of lenses (see my GEAR & EQUIPMENT page for more detail on what I love to use to create my images).
The choice of going black & white only was the only possible one for me. I wasn’t about letting colour distract me from interpreting these landscapes I always longed to photograph in a manner as true to my vision as possible. I wanted to reveal their inner, deeper nature, in a way that only working directly in black & white could let me do.
After returning home, just before the beginning of 2024, we slowly left the road behind and went back to our routines. Since January, I dedicated time, energy and study to preparing for the next step of my photographic journey – large format, 4×5” analogue photography – and I started working on the photographs I made during our trip.
For whatever reason, I decided to start developing my photographs from the last destination we visited during our trip and to go back in time from there.
80 photographs strong, this Pacific Northwest Portfolio is the first one resulting from our 2023 Around the World tour.
When my wife and I landed in Seattle after mid-October 2023, we were on the last leg of a long trip that brought us to explore and experience some truly incredible and diverse landscapes. Our eyes, minds and hearts were full of beauty, history and emotions that will stay with us forever. As well, we have been privileged enough to be able to visit the USA multiple times, since our first trip together there in 2010. While we never had the opportunity to visit and photograph the Pacific Northwest before, my wife prepared the trip in depth, as she always does, so we had some idea about what to expect.
Despite all that, though, what we found wildly exceeded our expectations, making The Pacific Northwest one of the most inspiring areas I have worked on.
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK & WASHINGTON COAST | Our first stop along the coast, Olympic National Park, is vast, spectacular and wild. When we arrived at Rialto Beach, I immediately knew Olympic would deserve more time than what we had planned for it. Even with the few days we had, I truly enjoyed getting to know Olympic and interpret its wonderful beaches through my camera:
EXPLORING AND PHOTOGRAPHING OREGON | Driving south along the coast, we arrived in Oregon, where we would stay for over a month. Oregon has it all, and during our time there we took our time to explore the coast at length, taking some short diversions inland as well to explore and photograph some of the mountains, lakes and waterfalls. Out of about 70 photographs created in Oregon, I organised a selection for you here by sub-Portfolios, so to speak.
NATURAL SEASCAPES | When I am out there working, I equally enjoy photographing landscapes that are purely natural and landscapes with man-made elements in them. When organising my Portfolios, however, I favour keeping the two separate, for better clarity. Let me start with a selection of photographs featuring natural landscapes created along the Oregon coast:
FOG | Fog is such a ubiquitous presence along the Pacific Northwest’s coast that if you spent enough time there, you’d be bound to encounter it – and more than once. Reading about Oregon before our trip, I found a lot of disappointed photographers reporting that the fog made it impossible for them not just to photograph anything, but often even to see the sun at sunrise and sunset for days on end.
Photographing in black & white exclusively, fog doesn’t worry me in the least. I love fog, I love the mystery it adds to any landscape, I find it extremely moody and conducive to great photography. Perhaps, even more so when on the seaside. If anything, I wished I had more foggy days during our trip, not less. Enjoy a selection of fog photographs from the Oregon coast:
NATURAL SCULPTURES | No matter how long I keep doing this job and how many truly incredible places I have seen and photographed, Nature never stops surprising me for its magical ability as sculptor. Along the Oregon coast, this is immediately apparent at a macro level, with giant sea stacks, sea arches, vast beaches, cliffs, majestic rock formations following one another in a seemingly infinite sequence of inspiring visual stimuli. And that was something I expected to find, going to the Pacific Northwest.
What I wasn’t expecting at all, though, were the natural sculptures I found at a more intimate scale in Shore Acres. Erosion unveiled the most bizarre forms and structures there. On one side, I was looking at alien egg nests, some of which etching, some etched. On the other side, a goblin’s head was looking at me, among Star Wars battleships, spears and more. I spent two full days photographing there, and I could have spent many more:
MAN-MADE ELEMENTS IN THE LANDSCAPE | The influence of men on the landscape has been studied and theorised at length, from the immediately visible presence of man-made artefacts in a landscape to the much more abstract fact that our very presence in any given landscape is already modifying it just by us being there, to the influence we have on a landscape just by the fact that we are photographing it.
That said, while I do enjoy reading about all theories and philosophical foundations behind what we do, and while I certainly dedicate a lot of thought to what I do myself, I am a photographer much more than a theorist. Also, while I do appreciate documentary landscape photography a-la Basilico, personally I am more interested in photography that elicit emotions in the viewer, resonating with their experiences and transmitting them the feelings a place and a moment in time evoked and awoke in me.
My work revolves around the effect of passing time on matter. I use the landscape, be it natural or with man-made elements, to investigate and represent what time does to matter, to me and by extension to all of us. As such, the relationship between man and nature interests me the most in terms of the tangible presence of man-made objects, both as graphic signs in the landscape (e.g. lighthouse, for a very typical example) and because of their decay, that allow me to show the passing of time in a strongly relatable way. Man-made objects in landscape offer me a never-ending source of inspiration:
INLAND OREGON | As mentioned above, Oregon is not just about its incredible coasts. The inland is equally beautiful, and worth visiting, exploring and photographing by itself. While for this trip I decided to focus more on the coast, here’s a small selection of images from inland Oregon:
I truly enjoyed working in The Pacific Northwest for what turned out to be a very productive month, and I can’t wait to go back there in 2025 for more personal work and to lead our first THE OREGON COAST PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP there.
Thank you for joining me along my journey in the Pacific Northwest, from Olympic National Park to the Oregon Coast and inland, it was a real pleasure to share this Portfolio with you!
Thank you for reading this post, I hope you enjoyed it! Why don’t you share it with your friends, or drop me a comment to let me know your thoughts about this?
4 thoughts on “THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: A PORTFOLIO”
Ah Vieri – once again you inspire me.
What a beautiful collection of images.
Thank you as always for sharing your work with us.
Ciao
Peter
Hello Peter,
thank you very much indeed for your comment and kind words, that is truly much appreciated, I am honoured if my work can serve as inspiration!
Best regards,
Vieri
Vieri -so happy to see these at last, and your organization of the images is perfect. What a glorious treasure the Pacific NW is, and not just the coastline. Thanks for these and I wish I was going with you on your final US workshop(s).
Hello John,
great to hear from you and thank you for your comment and kind words, so glad you enjoyed the photographs and the organization of this Portfolio! Indeed, the PNW is just amazing, and not just the coastline – it’s such a beautiful region, blessed with everything from spectacular coasts to waterfalls and mountains, and there is so much there that years wouldn’t be enough to render it justice, photographically.
It would have been great to have you with us for our last US Workshops, hopefully there will be other opportunities to work together on some of our other destinations in the future!
Best regards,
Vieri