What has become of the fabled Walden Pond? In his debut title, S. B. Walker surveys the symbolically charged landscape of literary giant Henry David Thoreau. Deeply rooted in the American collective conscious, it is a mythical place perceived as wild and often considered to be the birthplace of the modern environmental movement. Contemporary Walden, however, is perhaps best characterized as a glorified suburban park, nestled amongst the sprawl of metropolitan Boston. As our awareness of the place is largely borne out of Thoreau’s diligent description some 150 years ago – writings in which he often drew connections to the Arcadian landscape of Virgil – the current state of affairs portrayed in Walker’s images reveals a thought provoking paradox.
S. B. Walker is an artist living and working in New England. His works have been exhibited internationally and can be found in public and private collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Smith Museum of Art, the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, and the Prentice and Paul Sack Photographic Trust, among others.