Inspired by a fascination with the region, British photographer Carl Bigmore embarked on a trip to explore the Pacific Northwest and the myths associated with it. What entailed was a series of serendipitous encounters and experiences that led to his project Between Two Mysteries.
Imbued with a strong sense of atmosphere, the Brit’s images resemble film stills, capturing a landscape that is simultaneously strange and familiar.
Carl, tell us about your project Between Two Mysteries…
The project came about from both a long gestation period of various ideas and inspirations and a good amount of spontaneity. I’ve always had a love of the literature, music, film and television that captured the landscape of the Pacific Northwest of America (the states of Oregon and Washington).
It’s where David Lynch’s Twin Peaks was filmed, the birthplace of grunge and the location for some of Ken Kesey’s most lauded writing. It’s an area of dense forests, low lying clouds and a lot of counterculture movements (at least that’s how it used to be). The region played such a strong part in my imagination from an early age that I was quite obsessed with it and absorbed lots of it’s mythology and history. As a place it began to inhabit an almost mythic status.
Then in 2014, when I was doing a Masters in documentary photography, I had the opportunity to make a major body of work about whatever I wanted. I procrastinated for a long time about what I would do and even extensively planned a completely different project. Then about two weeks before I was due to start, I scrapped all my prior plans and decided to travel around the Pacific Northwest.
I very instinctively could picture the project without being able to articulate it. I marked out all the various places which had connections to my favourite writers, tv shows, musicians, films, etc. and just lived out of a car and little tent for a month. By visiting places I only knew through my imagination and letting that lead me, I ended up having countless interactions with people around the region. These people and the stories of their reality began to blur with my imagined ideas of the Pacific Northwest and quite organically, the project was created around this narrative of the imagined world and reality, fact and fiction.
With this overt overlap between reality and fiction, did you approach the work with a fixed idea of the kinds of images you wanted to make, or was your process more spontaneous?
No, it’s very spontaneous. If I have too much of a rigid idea of what I want to photograph, I usually make bad pictures. Photography works best for me when it’s intuitive and the picture becomes a testament to an experience or feeling.
Can you choose a photo from the series and tell us the story behind it – perhaps a memorable encounter you had?
One of the very first pictures I took when I started making the project was of Erik and his horse Hollywood. The way that picture came about exemplifies the whole process really and how organic it was…Â
I had arrived in the town of Snoqualmie, Washington which is where Twin Peaks was mainly filmed. As I drove I pulled over alongside the Snoqualmie River to get a few pictures. The road and river features in the opening credits of Twin Peaks, so I thought I’d go and see if there was a nice picture to be made.
After taking a few photos of the road with the misty mountains in the background, I started to walk through the trees along the roadside to get to the river. It was quite dense woods and undergrowth and as I got closer to the river, I started to hear something moving in the woods. I could hear animal sounds and something walking. Having been warned about bears, I automatically started to make my footsteps as loud as possible so as to scare the bear. I think I’d seen someone do this on some tv show, I’m not sure it’s a verified anti-bear attack measure.Â
Anyway, as I emerged through the undergrowth to meet my fate I was confronted by the surreal scene of a cowboy and his very handsome steed framed by woods, with a river in the background and further in the distance mist rolling over the mountains. It was as if the whole scene was set up for this perfect portrait.
As you can see from the picture they are standing on the bank of the river and it looks as if they’ve come from nowhere. It was quite a magical moment and that picture I took ended up being one of my favourites from the whole trip. I also ended up spending the rest of that day on the ranch that Erik worked at.
After that experience the project felt like it gained its own momentum and I seemed to be gifted with all these lovely chance meetings and experiences.
Did you face any challenges while working on this project?Â
Without sounding too smug it was a pretty effortless process. Other than some initial anxiety, everything just fell into place and I had one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had making work. I pretty much lived the work and I think the project itself captures that spirit, as much as it does the deeper themes.
A lot of that came from it being the first time I had ever travelled and made work completely on my own. It was so liberating to find people opening doors to me and being allowed brief glimpses into their worlds. One challenge I did have though, was locking my keys in my rental car whilst at the top of Mount Hood in Oregon.
Lastly, what inspires you? How would you describe your creative process?Â
Like a lot of photographers, I think my inspirations are pretty broad. I love music, reading and watching films too. Without those three I’m not sure I’d pick up the camera. I like to spend time thinking about projects and getting excited to make work, almost to the point where you’re like a coiled spring ready to be released into the world. I try not to look at too much photography, especially when I’m creating myself, as I find it to be a distraction. There is just so much great photography out there, it can feel overwhelming and a little intimidating.
