In Darkness is presented as a pair of diptychs that represent the last moments of the lives of both Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr.; one diptych represents Matthew Shepard, and the other represents James Byrd, Jr. Each diptych was made in the same way: Using a DSLR camera, Shafer took one long exposure from…

The Parting of the Ways Using a hand-held 35mm camera loaded with black and white film, the resulting series of photographs are of high contrast and extreme grain. The texture of the image mirrors the terrain in which it was shot, a location within the three registers of the desert (Independence Rock, Names Hill, and…

These images were taken along the Mormon Trail, and Mormon Rocks along I-15 and the Cajon Pass.  This is one of the trails that led European settlers traveling on one of the overland trails to Southern California during the mid-1800’s. Indigenous communities had occupied the region for a few hundred years before the arrival of…

Wait ’til You See the Devil’s Punchbowl (2014-2016) Shot with the 4 x 5 camera, historically used to document landscapes, this series of photographs was taken in the Louisiana Bayous where oil and gas mining has caused contamination and land erosion. The 4 x 5 produces images that are sharper than the naked eye is…

Installation shot of the camera obscura in Robert Israel’s bedroom CABRILLO NATIONAL MONUMENTPOINT LOMA PENNINSULA, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA A site-specific art installation that was part of a one-day art event curated by A SHIP IN THE WOODS in partnership with Cabrillo National Monument Conservancy on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015. I turned two bedrooms of the…

Conquest of the Vertical (2012-2014) Conquest of the Vertical is a series of 6’ pinhole negative images of remote Native American lands in California where mining occurred in the 1800’s. It was the first body of work in which I relinquished as much control as possible so that the barren, stripped land, devastated by years…