Garrett Grove (b. 1982, USA) gained an MFA in Photography from the University of Hartford (2017) after following a BA from Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA (2005). He lives and works in Ojai, California.
Journey to the Interior
Journey to the Interior follows a personal narrative of a search for identity amidst the backdrop of rural America. The work was made during the years leading up to, and following, the 2016 Presidential election. The photographs were primarily created in government designated frontier spaces and juxtaposes a tradition of black and white documentary photographs against ambiguous color photographs. This body of work found its original motivation in the roots of 19th and 20th century American documentary photography, non-fiction writings regarding the domestication of the West, marketing propaganda glamorizing the working-class life, and a personal curiosity with rural landscapes and towns nearby my home in the Pacific Northwest. Ultimately, Journey to the Interior has less to do with the external situations laid out before my camera and more to do with the internal landscape my mind was inhabiting while visiting these locations. Adrift in an internal dialogue during a time of drastic personal change, I found empathy in the slow-to-change places of rural America.
To view more of Garrett Grove’s work please visit his website.