Artist Statement: Colin Winterbottom

January 11, 2010 · Posted in Artists, Places to go in DC

This time last year the National Archives was preparing to mark the 75th Anniversary of its John Russell Pope-designed Washington headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue. To get the structure suited for celebration, scaffolding was quickly erected so crews could clean and re-point columns and the remarkable sculpture in it’s pediments.

This scaffold caught the eye of DC photographer Colin Winterbottom, whose work has often been featured in Vastu exhibits. Colin has a long history of photographing DC’s landmarks by way of restoration scaffold — he’s been to the tip of the Washington Monument, the top of the Capitol Dome, around and on top of the Lincoln Memorial, and to the west pediment of the Supreme Court — and he knew he’d have to add the Archives to this list.

This rare access to the pediments and the top of the 53-foot columns resulted in a wonderful suite of images. A dozen of these images are featured in the Archive’s official book marking the anniversary and the cover is based on one of his images as well; that image and several others are part of his current exhibit at Vastu, on display through February 7.

Please come by and see the pediment sculptures from a rare vantage.