State Art started with a seemingly simple scenario: Texas photographer Rick Vanderpool wanted to see if he could photograph the word “Texas” at least once in each of his 254 counties. He did it, but then … what to do with all of those pictures? One poster-sized collage later and State Art was born.
I am the official State Art photographer for New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island. I have also produced a State Art-styled poster for Newtown, CT, in honor of the Tercenntennial of the town that we celebrated in 2005.
Click on any of the collages to see a more detailed view
Newtown Connecticut
My current home and a bit of a departure for my State Art work. Could I really find enough Newtowns to fill up a collage? The easy part was finding 82 Newtowns and using them to surround our famous flagpole; the hard part was all of the other Newtowns that I found and couldn’t fit on the page!
New Jersey
21 counties, including Mercer where I lived for 5 years just outside of Princeton. New Jerseyans are fiercely loyal to their home state, and this collection of images celebrates everything from South Jersey to Down Jersey to the littlest farm stands with their Jersey Tomatoes. I went through 65 rolls of film to record the 152 images that make up the Looking for New Jersey print.
New York
62 counties. 107 rolls of film. Think you know New York? Test yourself and see if you can identify the famous and not-so-famous “New York”s from Manhattan, Cooperstown, and all over the state in the 153 individual images that make up the Looking for New York print.
Looking For New York, Looking for New Jersey and Looking For Newtown are each available as individual 18×24 prints on heavy stock glossy paper. They each come personally signed and include a full description of the project and the county (or in Newtown’s case, the street) that each image was taken in – perfect for scavenger hunts! You can purchase the prints through my Etsy Store.
Connecticut and Rhode Island are still in progress, but I am planning to have them ready soon. There are also many other states across the country that are available through my fellow State Art photographers. Visit my Contact Me page and I can put you on my mailing list or put you in touch with the local photographer who handles your area.