HenriRobideau.ca

HenriRobideau.com

2008 Babyland Documentation

The idea of documenting Babyland had been floating around for a couple of years but it wasn't until 2008 that the project seriously got under way. My job of photographing the site of Image Bank's 1970's art activities was left very open ended by Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov – somewhere between a documentary project and an artists collaboration.

Two visits to Robert's Creek, one in May and the other in July 2008, provided the necessary photographic opportunities to assemble the visual material for a forty year look-back. Just having Michael and Vincent together at Babyland was not an easy task as Trasov only spent his summers there regenerating and drawing after the majority of the year living in Berlin. Morris only visited infrequently as his art life had reached international proportions beyond the rustic, bucolic splendor of simple rain forest existence (he was a busy guy).

The photography was conducted with every possible format – 35mm, 120, 4x5, 8x10, Polaroid. The processing, editing and assembly of images took me a year and then another year again to generate a book. It wasn't until the end of 2011 that the book was finally printed.

See Babyland Publication Information

See Babyland Dot Edition

Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov on the back porch of The Cabin at Babyland, May 8, 2008.