The North Fork By Trent Davis Bailey

SIGNED COPIES

In The North Fork, Trent Davis Bailey looks to a remote river valley in western Colorado. A Colorado native himself, the artist was drawn to the vastness of his home state, its rich agrarian history, and the assorted characters who inhabit the Western Slope.

He was especially curious about his extended family who used to live there — an aunt, uncle, and cousins — who he hadn’t seen in nearly 20 years. Describing his childhood memories of them, he says:

“They lived in a large tent at the base of a mountain. Their backyard had three ponds and a garden where they grew their own food. Beyond that was a dense forest of scrub oak and juniper trees where I imagined coyotes, black bears, and mountain lions lurked.

Bailey marveled over his cousins’ world, but due to a falling out between his father and his uncle, he only visited the North Fork a few times as a child. In 2011, Bailey returned to the valley and for the next seven years he used photography to piece together his experience of the North Fork and its inhabitants. In due time, he not just found his extended family, but he rekindled ties with them while forging his own place within the local community.

Then one fateful day, while foraging for mushrooms, he met his now wife with whom he has two children. Collectively, the photographs in this book are informed by that backstory, but they also go well beyond it: conjuring up their own associations of place, food, kinship, and wonder.