Covered Bridges Project Overview

Overview

If covered bridges could tell stories from when they were first built to when horses and carriages crossed them and finally, in modern times with cars, I am sure many of us would stand around and listen to those stories.

I have embarked on this photography project because of my wife's inspiration. In 2023, my wife told me that for 2024, she wanted to see 24 covered bridges in New Hampshire. She isn't a big fan of driving and had wondered if I would go along. 

Typically, I am a solitary creature when it comes to photography and so I’ll spend a lot of time figuring out how I want to shoot the scene and tend to ignore the world around me. Making people wait doesn't seem right and feels awkward, so I go photographing solo. Spending time with my wife cannot be passed up and she was okay with waiting while I photographed the bridges.

The Vision

Initially, I wanted to compare digital vs film with this project. However, a different vision emerged as I have started working through the bridges and processing the results.

I knew I wanted to photograph the bridges as a panorama, but I did not know what the story needed to be said. One day, I was photographing the "Red Covered Bridge" in Vermont; it hit me for the vision. 

I remember standing there and looking at all the intersections of roads, and I was shocked I hadn't seen photographs of the covered bridges portrayed with all of these extra details I was seeing. So I set up and photographed the scene and hoping to get home with something workable since the light was terrible. 

Once I stitched together the images to create the panorama, I knew I had something special, and the vision was solidified and sometimes, that is how it goes for any of my projects. I go out to start photographing something because it seems fun, but the story and vision become apparent as I progress through the process.