by Mike Rosso
What would you call a man who spends much of his time burying a variety of printed matter in the earth only to dig them up, thoroughly decomposed, many months later?
A) An archeologist B) An eccentric
C) A photographer
In the case of Coaldale resident, Scott Engel, the answer is C, a photographer, and he has made somewhat of a name for himself in the art of decay.
A native of Portland, Oregon, Engel became interested in photography at the age of twenty when he purchased his first 35mm camera and taught himself how to use it. A graduate of the San Francisco Art Academy, he spent his early photo career working as a gallery assistant in that city, eventually moving to Colorado to study under notable photographer Gary Metz at Colorado University in Boulder. It was about a year after he received his MFA that he began burying objects only to dig them up and photograph them, a process he continues to this day and calls “DeCompose”.
After graduating from CU, Engel spent the next 24 years teaching at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, eventually becoming the Chair of the Art Department. During that time he focused on two ongoing art projects; the “DeCompose” work and “Colorado and the West”, a series of photographs demonstrating what he calls, “the values and understandings of the people that live and have lived in the environments photographed.” Employing three elements he considers necessary to a successful photograph; form, history and metaphor, the “Colorado and the West” project describes what he calls, “my life at the intersection of past and future.”
For his “DeCompose” works Engel collects magazines, art history books, musical scores, maps and other printed matter, tears the pages out, mixes them and “ages” them in the earth. After several months he returns with a shovel, unearths them and photographs the remains. He considers the materials, “part of a natural process and part of nature.”
His work has shown in solo and group exhibitions from Virginia to Medellin, Columbia. Engel’s photos are also in many permanent collections including the Denver Art Museum, The University of Texas in Austin and the Amoco Corporate Collection. He has also been a guest lecturer at several colleges and universities across the country.
One of his original works was commissioned through the City and County of Denver Public Art Program and displayed at the Denver Convention Center Hotel from 2004-05. Most recently he showed in a group exhibition, “Shooting The West, Contemporary Colorado Photographers” at the Arvada Center this year.
He has also conducted five-week long summer photo workshops in Paris and Southern France as well as landscape workshops in national parks throughout the West. Over the years he has worked in formats ranging from 5×7 field camera to the current Canon SLR digital which he now uses as his primary photographic tool.
After retiring from teaching, he and his wife of 34 years, Janet, decided to leave the Denver area, bought land in Coaldale, a small hamlet between Cotopaxi and Howard along U.S. 50, and built a self-designed passive solar home and studio amongst the piñon trees where they have lived since late-2003.
Engel is currently focusing all his energies on making art and has self-published three books; Dead Aspen (2008), Fall Into Winter (2008) and The Garden (2009) – that is – when he’s not busy digging things up in his backyard.
To learn more about Scott Engel, see more of his works, or find links to purchase any of his books go to: www.scottengelphoto.com
