Transcendental Concord (2014-2016)

In TRANSCENDENTAL CONCORD, Lisa McCarty captures the spirit of transcendentalism. This philosophical and literary movement originated in the 1830s and 1840s in New England in the United States. It is characterized by a profound connection with nature, the belief in the inherent goodness of man and an independent and self-sufficient way of life. The core of transcendentalism was formed by a group of writers and philosophers in Concord, Massachusetts; the most renowned of which are Bronson and Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau. It was the first American philosophical movement, and their ideas still influence new generations today. Including McCarty herself, who spent just as much time walking and reading as she did photographing to create this work. In doing so, she pays homage to the ideals of this movement through the landscape that fed the philosophy of transcendentalism.