To Believe

What happens when you hit the street with a camera and a few hours to look around, no hurry, no assignment, is that you get to have a lot of fun. I did that in Charlotte for a few afternoons recently.

Open time and city streets reminded me how much I love roaming around, looking, seeing who and what I might bump into. Those afternoons refreshed my spirit.

People, many people you meet and talk to, are incredibly trusting and open. Sure, they say, you can take a picture. What do you want me to do?

Exit Sign

I just left a workshop at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies. I attended a daylong blitz with photographer Ernesto Bazan. My mind is full of ideas and confusions.

For one thing, I am thinking about the use of the full frame. Do all parts of the photograph - left and right, up and down, close up and background - work as one complete whole? It's a demanding task that's harder to achieve than it may seem. The color of a coat, the way light falls on a cheek, the sign above a store can ruin everything, to say nothing of exposure, composition, or point of view.

The other thing that I am stuck thinking about is mystery. To conjure mystery is another demanding task, but, that too must be contained in the image. How do you create that? Who knows. When it's there, it's obvious, but how it got there is not so clear.

Today is a beautiful and sunny Friday and I am not quite able to leave for the street. The thoughts from the workshop block me like this chair that sits empty beside the door.

Light Lines

When I worry about what to make next or fall into the trap of wondering what's the point of another picture in this world, I am reminded that nature does what it does freely, without worry, without angst. Nature creates art every day. Nature was and is the first artist.
So, what's the point?
Being alive.