Where Turkeys Go to Die

Where Turkeys Go to Die is an exhibition of photographs by local photographer David Corbin.

Photographs on display were created with a 4x5 large-format film camera and Polaroid 600 camera. These images are a reflection of the artist’s history and experience – experiences dark and beautiful, uplifting and afflicted.

Artist Statement:

Out west from me off a country road is a small turkey farm with a silo and a large
pen in the front. There are a few houses scattered about the land surrounding the
farm. In autumn you can watch hundreds of white turkeys grow from babies to
adults. I watched them every week on my commute to school. One day the turkeys
disappeared. I often thought about the day they got to disappearing. I think about
the sounds the nearby houses hear. I think about the blood spilled, and the haunting
silence the next day – a singular sound (or non-sound) from what was polyphony.

These thoughts inspired me to make images about history and experience –
experiences dark and beautiful, uplifting and afflicted. I traveled (often trespassed)
to forgotten spaces with my 4x5 camera or Polaroid camera to photograph. Many
times I teetered, quite literally, between a busy road and a quiet solace. I also made
images of objects steeped in the same darkness and beauty as the landscape images.

Most of these images were made with my 4x5 large format camera. That camera is a
huge pain in my ass. Sometimes it takes over an hour to make a single image. I
process the negatives in a tray by hand, and my marks and mistakes are visible on
the negative and in the image. I also use a Polaroid 600 camera, and combine two
separate Polaroid images to create an expansive diptych.

The 2017-2018 Photography Exhibition Series is sponsored in part by: