A surveyor named John Hayes chose and surveyed the site of the City of Twin Falls, Idaho in 1904. One hundred and fourteen years later, the city finally honored his historic role in the city's history by unveiling a seven foot tall bronze statue of him in the center of Twin Falls. I made this photograph of this statue, sculpted by Dave LaMure, Jr, only three months after its unveiling. LaMure based his sculpture on an iconic vintage photograph of Hayes at work as a surveyor. He says he saw in that photograph's composition a "coming together in purpose...the eye of a surveyor looking through a transit -- the potential of phenomenal magic that could have influence forever."


My own photo of this statue is based on triangular form. The triangle is at the essence of surveying, a craft based on the ancient geometrical principle known as "triangulation." It is a surveying method that measures the angles in a triangle formed by three survey control points. What better way to express the point of this man's craft than to base my photograph on triangles?


This image, a tight closeup of the statue framed from the waist up, is firmly anchored within my rectangular frame by the surveyor's tripod, which is, of course, a triangle. The statue stands before an office building in the center of town, and I used the triangular struts on its external structure to create my own symbolic geometric background. A huge strut echoes the lean of the surveyor's shoulder, and becomes a triangle as it passes behind his body.There are also two smaller triangles formed within those struts on the right hand side of the statue. All four of these triangles bring a symbolic design to my image that echoes the very nature of this man's historic accomplishment.