ENTRY DESCRIPTION
My work gravitates to the ineffable concept of Americana; images that represent the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States of America. Traveling around vast landscapes and living in disparate states I find America to be a mess of contradiction, competing themes and a jumble of people and ideas, which makes the attempt to define it almost fruitless. The ideal of the American Dream is central in defining the term. One could attempt by taking into account national identity, historical context, patriotism and nostalgia. The great American road trip that historically distilled our complicated culture brings forth scenes, places and people that belong inextricably and unmistakably to this country alone. The quality, tone and energy are instantly recognizable as American.
I embarked on a road trip at the end of 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The circumstances and reduced freedom allowed the traveler made this trip distinctly different from past trips. In keeping with the idea of cultural confusion, in some areas I saw that both the landscapes and the people have changed as I encountered empty pedestals where historic heroes have been dethroned and a fearful and angry populace loudly denouncing differing ideas. In other areas a sense of nothing much changing was evident. The series as a whole, not the individual images constitute the work, adding another layer to the notion of Americana.

AUTHOR
Karen Elizabeth Baker is an American fine art photographer. She practices the investigation of image making, from the gelatin silver prints she made early on to her current engagement with digital platforms.

Baker’s foremost signature is capturing the mundane aspects of American social landscape in straightforward, unglamorous images. She studied photography and art history at UCLA and under artists Keith Carter, Roger Ballen, Shelby Lee Adams, Ed Freeman and Julie Blackmon. She received a BFA in art and art history with a focus on photography from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She has won awards from the Los Angeles Center of Photography and Monochrome Photography Awards, and her work is in the collection of the Waiea, Ward Village, Honolulu.

Her images reiterate various tropes about landscape photography, architectural photography, narrative photography still life photography, and various other contemporary – notably, color – photographic practice. Bakerʻs inspirations originate from William Eggelston’s pioneering work in color and the New Topographic photographers Robert Adams, Stephen Shore and Henry Wesselʻs exploration with man altered landscapes. A repeated theme in her work is the portrayal of spaces that seem devoid of human presence, creating tension due to the absence of their human inhabitants. This absence elevates the diverse range of everyday subjects into a cohesive body of artistic expression.

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