Overview
Cape Disappointment is a photo series that documents the hyperreal visual vernacular of the distinctive towns of the coastal northwest — places where historical, cultural, commercial, and domestic forces layer to create a confounding visual melange.
Description
Shot over the last ten years, Cape Disappointment takes its name from a landform that acts as its tonal and geographical focus. The project focuses on the constructed landscape — the regions’ geology simulated in a molded plastic play structures; a giant fiberglass wave on a waveless beach; a tableau of Christ painted on oil tanks and left to corrode under the heavens.
Cape Disappointment, the book, was made possible by a grant from The Regional Arts & Culture Council and is available free to residents of the Oregon and Washington coast. Proceeds from inland sales will go toward future printings.
If you live on the coast and would like a copy please click below.
Cape Disappointment - The Photo Book
In a nod to the ephemerality of its subject matter, this photo book was printed on non-archival paper and will visibly fade if left in the sun — the screen printed sleeve was designed to act like a photographic negative, creating a permanent sun-print of the title design.
Print Sales
Prints available directly from the artist. Contact for info.
Artist Bio
Chris Lael Larson works in photography, video, music, assemblage, and installation to highlight the absurd and confounding connections resonant between things we consume, and things we hold dear.
Larson has exhibited works in over 30 cities across the US with notable showings at the Berkeley Museum of Art, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art and The Portland Art Museum. He received his BA in Photography from the University of California at Santa Cruz where he was awarded the Irwin Scholarship for the Visual Arts. Chris lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
© 2021 Chris Lael Larson