This bi-weekly blog column will become a place for a lot of projects that I am tinkering with close to home. The first, that I started over the summer and haven’t shown much of, is a project that is currently running under the title, “James River Blues.” It explores the James River in Virginia, which starts in the mountains and cuts 410 miles through the state before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. I have so many childhood memories linked to this river that I was instantly drawn to it when we moved back here in June. My eventual goal is to start at the headwaters and take a canoe trip to where it empties into the ocean. For practical reasons I began the project around Smithfield which is about 45 minutes to an hour from where we live in Norfolk. Some of these images were also included in “Sleepwalking,” which I produced for the Joop Swart Masterclass. I will be posting bits of this over the coming weeks and will be continuing to shoot various pieces to this larger puzzle throughout the year.

Shortly after beginning to work on it I pitched the project to a hospital being built near the river and was eventually commissioned to create 27 images. This past Thursday there was an opening at  the hospital and I was able to see some of the framed images for the first time. I’ve also never seen my pictures printed that big before (24×36″) so I was pretty stoked.

Major props are due to AdoramaPix for printing the beautiful 24×36s and to David Wright who printed the three panoramic verticals that the hospital wanted for a centerpiece in the lobby. I was really pleased with the results. David is about to start printing ten more of the images for an office inside the hospital on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta paper and I can’t wait to see how they turn out.

_________________________________________________

Matt Eich is a photographer who is based in Norfolk, Virginia.  His column, “In My Backyard” appears every other Wednesday.  He is a Founding Member of LUCEO Images.