Taco Stop

DESCRIPTION

Archival ink on museum-quality cotton rag paper | 2022

Being on the road, taking photos, is a lonely part of James Needham’s process. For his new series, Traveling Home, Needham drove and walked in chosen directions, photographing anything that caught his eye. For the Australian photographer, it is akin to a pleasant meditative state where the goal is to block out anything but small glimpses of beauty. The result, he says, is a lot of trash and the occasional treasure.

One such treasure, Taco Stop, the first offering from the upcoming Traveling Home series, is offered in four sizes and is reminiscent of Edward Hopper’s colorful city scenes, each one deliberately composed to create a mood. Taco Stop is a quirky photo collage that takes an image of a Coney Island sign—actually photographed in Boston—and places it on a building photographed in Spain in front of a Texas sky. Photography is typically thought of as a medium that captures one location during a single moment in time, Needham explains. The internationally-lauded photographer loves that he can combine images of multiple moments and places into one photograph—telling a complete story, not simply a fraction of one.

In editing this series, Needham saw so many pieces of his wife in the photographs he had taken on the lonely road. Images of mailboxes and phone booths—symbols of communication—reflected his desire to reach out to her. Most notable was the recurring theme of food in the photographs, an incredibly powerful image of love between Needham and his wife that he seeks out when away from home. In contrast to previous series in which Needham removed himself entirely from the image, focusing instead on the structural elements of line, shape, and color, Traveling Home is a deeply personal reflection of love and loneliness. A desire to travel coupled with a need to return home.

DIMENSIONS

12 x 18 inches

24 x 36 inches

30 x 45 inches

40 x 60 inches

FRAMED DIMENSIONS

12 x 18 inches

Matted: 19.5 x 25.5 x 2 inches

Full Bleed: 13.5 x 19.5 x 1.5 inches

24 x 36 inches

Matted: 32 x 44 x 2 inches

Full Bleed: 24.5 x 37.5 x 2 inches

30 x 45 inches

Matted: 38 x 53 x 2 inches

Full Bleed: 32 x 47 x 2 inches

40 x 60 inches

Full Bleed: 42 x 62 x 2 inches

AUTHENTICATION

The work comes with a Certification of Authenticity signed and numbered by the Co-Founder of Tappan