Military Vernacular

This weeks Goodness come from a photographer by the name of Ryan Hendon. Growing up a military brat, Hendon spent many of his childhood days traveling or moving from military base to military base living in such places as Hawaii and Germany. While studying at the San Francisco

Art Institute, Hendons ideas started migrating away from his portfolio that he originally came to grad school with which consisted of black and white photographs of the contrast between new housing developments and older, historical buildings in Philadelphia. He began photographing both objects and spaces that were related to warfare.

His imagery now contained still life's containing gas masks from World War 2 and military fatigues. Hendon also started to photograph turret foundations and bunkers that pepper the coastline of the San Francisco bay area that were originally placed as military strongholds to protect America from the Japanese forces during World War 2. Hendon uses formal compositions that allows the viewer to focus on the form of the remaining foundation also enabling the viewer to experience the powerful presence over the land that the turrets once

protected.

Also, during a disc golf outing, Hendon stumbled along a garage sale that contained over 200 top secret aerial images from World War 2. These black and white images were photographed from bomber and scouting planes and recorded paratrooper drops, actual bombings of enemy territory and battleships at sea.

Hendon is currently working on photographing military spaces that are now being used for things unrelated to the war. He also still keeps his eye out for the "Military Vernacular" during his travels.

To view more of Ryan Hendon's work please visit www.ryanhendon.com/. Keep an eye for Ryan Hendon. You may be seeing his work is big name galleries and biennials in the future.