Urban Landscape photography by joel Sampson

Most of my photography is urban landscape from both large and small cities. I'm drawn to design, texture, shadows, and signage. While I don't think of it as documentary photography, many of the subjects I have recorded no longer exist.

I'm now shooting digital with a Fuji S2 DSLR and a wide assortment of Nikor optics from 14mm to 400mm. I also carry a small Sony T-100 digital camera with me at all times, which I use often. My older work and some new work is photographed with film using a Pentax 67 or a Toya 4x5 field camera. I'm currently printing in-studio digital using an Epson printer with archival pigment ink on watercolor paper.

New Work - A new concept I'm working on is large scale photographic images combined with text. The images are vectorized and can be printed any size with no loss of detail or aliasing. I am currently printing them using archival pigmented ink on canvas. I have also experimented with billboard printers, but much of the solvent ink is not archival.

Shell, 2002, C-print, 30" x 40". In the Amon Carter Museum collection, Fort Worth, TX. Sampson made this contemporary landscape at night in the parking lot of a Houston motel located on the Southwest Freeway. He captured the dense, claustrophobic sensation within the urban setting, punctuating the blackness with morsels of dramatic color. Inky black hues dominate the photograph and an eerie stillness persuades. A shell station icon glimmers like a one-eyed Cyclops. The motel pool in the foreground and architectural details along the left edge of the image help orient the viewer. - Helen Plummer, Assistant Curator of Photography, Amon Carter Museum.

Pluck a Duck Archival pigment on canvas	Phat Archival pigment on canvas	Chi Chi Loca Archival pigment on canvas
Blue Umbrellas Archival pigment on paper	Warehouse No. 5 Archival pigment on paper	339 Archival pigment on paper
Bargains Archival pigment on paper	Howling at the Moon Archival pigment on paper	Okmulgee Orpheum Archival pigment on paper
Tulsa Roof Archival pigment on paper	El Capri Archival pigment on paper	Sandell Archival pigment on paper
Siding Archival pigment on paper	Feed Store Archival pigment on paper	Hook 'Em Archival pigment on paper
I've Been Workin' Archival pigment on paper	BNSF Worker Archival pigment on paper	Pallets Archival pigment on paper
Gravel by the Siding Archival pigment on paper	Stan Doesn't Live Here Anymore Archival pigment on paper	OKC Archival pigment on paper
Escape From Terrell Archival pigment on paper	MAC Too C-print	Shell C-print
Safety Habit C-print	Corsicana C-print	Bethlehem C-print
5 Cents C-print	Moo La Archival pigment on paper	Downtown Temple C-print
Comp Shoes C-print	Be Careful C-print	Waffle House C-print
No Loitering - Self Portrait C-print	Texas Tea C-print	Ly Ice C-print
Texo C-print	Misty C-print	MAC C-print
Standard Bedding C-print