K.O.A.L. or Kampgrounds Of America Landscapes
June of 2010 I drove around the U.S. with my family. While on the road we stayed at the Kampgrounds Of America. In fact we found ourselves mapping out our travel times between each destination according to the distance to our next KOA. The concept of the campgrounds lent themselves to the historical reference of the golden age of the automobile and the family trip experience of the American landscape.
Today, due to high fuel costs and unemployment in our culture, this concept is merely a memory or cliché. The KOA landscapes have become rv parks out the desperation of these times. Currently, the U.S. is experiencing a double dip recession. This reveals a perpetuation of historical struggles that conflict with the “American Dream”, which can be found similar to that of Dorothea Lange in the “great dustbowl” and Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”. The photographs of the KOA landscapes fall on the nostalgia of the motor tourist as well as the myth of the frontier.
-Jasmine Moorhead wrote about the photography of KOAL
Naaman Rosen took a road trip in the summer of 2010 across the U.S., during which he camped as often as possible in a KOA Kampground. This series of black and white photographs pictures these ubiquitous, iconic campgrounds frequently found alongside busy highways, in the middle of sweltering parking lots, or arbitrarily delineated from a fallow field. Only barely do these spaces conjure up the idea of "camping" or even notions of "the outdoors." Rosen, though, has found a way through the easy irony by recognizing and capturing the exquisite compositional potential found in this forced containment, thereby opening up a portal to the pathos of community and bizarre beauty found there.
In our photographic culture the
context of an image can be easily manipulated to fit the needs of the
artist. As an audience in
this culture, we rely on a theme or story to hold a value for the content in
which we look at. These stories
and personal narratives run into and throughout are uses of photography. But what if these stories are
unknown or tossed aside. For
me, finding a collection of exposed negatives at a flea market or estate sale
is similar to finding a book with a missing title and pages. What you get is small
descriptions with no historical context.
A choose your own adventure perhaps, using your own imagination to
create an outcome that can easily be mistaken for reality.
Naaman Rosen
4123 Broadway Ave. #212 Oakland, Ca 94611
www.weartspace.com/Naaman_Rosen.php
510-387-0677
Education:
2013: MFA Photography Candidate San Francisco Art Institute
2007: BFA Photography California College of the Arts
2003: Documentary Photography
Seminar w/
David Bacon U.C. Berkeley
Awards:
2005 Best of CCA Junior Steven Oliver Arts Center
Review California College of the Arts
Publication:
2011 Zyzzyva 2011 Spring Issue
2 photographs selected from series titled KOAL or Kampgrounds Of America Landscapes
Exhibitions: (* Solo)
2011 Circumscribing The Liminal; Krowswork, Oakland, Ca.
US; Five Points Art House, San Francisco, Ca.
2010
Rock Paper Scissors Art Auction; RPS Art Collective,
Oakland, Ca.
2nd Annual Paint by Number; WE Artspace, Oakland, Ca.
21 Grand Art Auction; 21 Grand, Oakland, Ca.
Intersection; 21 Grand, Oakland, Ca.
*Home Coming; Fort Gallery, Oakland, Ca.
2009:
The Perfect World; Group Show, CCA South Gallery, Oakland, Ca.
Double Exposure (two) Balanced Roles; five bay area artist-slash-curators
working within residential spaces, Rowan Morrison Gallery, Oakland, Ca.
Water Mark: Group Photography Show, WE Artspace, Oakland, Ca.
First Annual Paint by Number; WE Artspace, Oakland, Ca.
2007:
SF Camerawork D.I.Y. Mash Up Party; San Francisco Camerawork, San Francisco, Ca.
Past, Present, and Future of CCA's Photography; Selected Photographs from Faculty, MFA and BFA Alumni, Richmond Art Center,
Richmond, Ca
The Look of Love, Juried by Marian Parmenter, Director of the
SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Art Object Gallery, San Jose, Ca.
.2006:
*Outside; BFA Undergraduate Exhibition, North Gallery, California College of the Arts, Oakland, Ca.
Estate Sale; South Gallery, California College of the Arts, Oakland Ca.
Untitled Group Show; GhostTown Gallery, Oakland, Ca.
In Print; ABCO Gallery, Oakland Ca.
Heads or Tails; ABCO Gallery, Oakland Ca.
*Untitled; Test Strip Gallery, California College of the Arts, Oakland, Ca.
*Untitled; Test Strip Gallery, California College of the Arts, Oakland, Ca.
2005:
Best Of Junior Review; Steven Oliver Art Center, California College of the Arts, Oakland Ca.
Negotiations; Rock Paper Scissor Gallery, Oakland, Ca.
*Untitled; Test Strip Gallery; California College of the Arts, Oakland, Ca.
2004:
*Untitled; Test Strip Gallery; California College of the Arts, Oakland, Ca.
2003:
Gluttony; ABCO Gallery; Oakland, Ca.
2002:
*Wall Space; San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), San Francisco, Ca.
*Wall Space, SFAI San Francisco, Ca.
2001:
Wall Space, SFAI San Francisco, Ca.
Wall Space, SFAI San Francisco, Ca.
2000:
Wall Space, SFAI San Francisco, Ca.