Lidargraphs
I coined the name Lidargraphs to describe the cameraless images I render from point cloud models. These images are created by moving an industrial laser scanner hundreds of times over many hours, bouncing a laser off hundreds of millions of surfaces to create a 3D model, which can then be rendered from infinite angles and perspectives. These are quantum photographs, capable of existing from any point of view, but none at all until a virtual point of view is defined.
Deepdene I (2024)
36”x45” archival inkjet print on Hahnemühle William Turner paper
This forest series of lidargraphs was commissioned by the Swan Coach House Gallery for a 2025 show. This scene of Atlanta’s Deepdene Forest shows the urban forest laid out by the founder of American landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted’s Park contains some of Atlanta’s oldest trees, including some older than the American Revolution.
Deepdene I (2024) - cropped detail
Deepdene II (2024)
36”x45” archival inkjet print on Hahnemühle William Turner paper
Deepdene II (2024) - cropped detail
This scene of crowds blurring past Alexander Calder’s Flamingo (1973) was the first Lidargraph I made. The point cloud stretches blocks through Chicago’s Federal Center designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the “less is more” landmark of International Style architecture, and I love that the laser points bounce off (and thus reveal) buildings blocks away.
One of the things about photographing in a government plaza that is also a tourist attraction is that everybody is photographing everybody. I was capturing the crowd of skateboarders and selfie-takers while photobombing their selfies, and all of us were under the watchful eye of dozens of security cameras operated by the Federal buildings and highly militarized Chicago Police. Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon of constant surveillance no longer meets with civilian resistance. We are all watchers now.
Lidargraph: Chicago Federal Plaza I (2024)
36”x50” archival inkjet print on Hahnemühle William Turner paper
If you remember the parade scene from Ferris Bueller (and of course you do), this is the block where Ferris sings “Danke Schoen”. Because I am visible every time the LiDAR scanner sweeps the scene, and the scene consists of hundreds of scans stitched together, I am Where's Waldo-ing in the scene several times if you know where to look.
Lidargraph: Chicago Federal Plaza I (2024) cropped detail
Lidargraph: Cloud Gate I (2024) -
36”x100” archival inkjet print on Hahnemühle William Turner paper
Lidargraph: Cloud Gate I (2024) detail
Lidargraph: Old 4th Ward Skate Park (2024)
36”x45” archival inkjet print on Hahnemühle William Turner paper
Lidargraph: Old 4th Ward Skate Park (2024) - cropped detail
I have always been obsessed with the legacy of eccentric millionaire and Coca-Cola heir Asa Candler Jr. (1880-1953). The original reason I procured a LiDAR scanner was to scan the eccentric architectural follies that he built in Atlanta to accompany a friend’s book on Candler . One of the hardest projects I’ve ever attempted is to scan Candler’s massive Westview Cemetery Abbey, Atlanta’s weirdest and greatest building. Begun in 1940 and still partially unfinished, it contains 11,444 crypts, intricate stained glass, soaring vaulted ceilings, a pipe organ, nuclear fallout drinking water supplies, and even a secret movie theater.