DENNIS “Bones” CARPENTER
Associate Professor of PhotographyRoom 115, Reynolds Building #1
Phone: 859/257-3280
Email: dwcarpOO@uky.edu
MFA, University of Florida
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(click images to view)
The history of civilization is a history of wanderers and seekers, from Gilgamesh to Jack Kerouac. Conversely, it is also a history of putting down roots, a sense of place. The work featured here is part of an ongoing series with the working title "Travel as a Metaphor for the Human Condition: Terra Firma, Terra Incognito." It is an attempt to synthesis a number of interests that I have developed over the years and involves producing one work for each year of my life that documents my travels for that year. The methodology involves extensive photographing with 35 m.m. color slides while traveling throughout the world. The slides are scanned onto Kodak CD-ROM disks, combined with other scanned materials (typical travel flotsam and jetsam: maps, boarding passes, passport pages, postcards, etc.), manipulated in the computer using image processing software, and output to 3' x 4' inkjet prints on canvas. Or, in the words of John Heartford; "I would not be here, if I had not been there."
Bones Carpenter was born in Meridian, Mississippi and raised in Kentucky. He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Kentucky in 1972 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography from the University of Florida in 1979. He has been a member of the University of Kentucky faculty since 1973 and has taught numerous workshops at Penland School of Crafts and in Europe. He has been an active member of the Society for Photographic Education since 1976, and served on the Board of Directors for eight years, holding the offices of Secretary and Vice-Chair. In 1983, he received an NBA individual artist fellowship and his work has been extensively exhibited in the United States and Europe.