Summer

A calm came over me today. Relief. My nephew is through his brain surgery and doing extremely well. The warm composure in this image reflects something deeply felt.

It's Blurry and Warm Outside

I'm getting excited for the next Kiki shoot tonight. Taking her out into the industrial sites. Not as glam, but should make for contrasts of some kind and another.

The soft focus is wonderful here. Looking at this makes me remember how long it took me to unlearn the photographer's credo that says always aim for sharp focus and crisp clarity.

Ideas Without End

Invitation is a word I've always liked. It sounds good, and often it can feel good too.

This summer I was invited to join a group photography show at 5ive and 40rty, a gallery on Trade Street in Winston-Salem. Well, the show - Surreal Expression - is up now and will remain so until August 8th (give or take). Kim Varnadoe, Cameron Dennis, and Marlya Voynova are also featured in the show - a quartet as tight as the Supremes.

I'm a little carried away. It's true. Why hide it?

In 2010 America, no one hides anything, so why not just let it rip a little.

This image, Ideas Without End, was made with milkweed, a dark velvet curtain, and a willing and beautiful model, my daughter Marissa. This is a special photograph to me - an example of when I began orchestrating portraits more than simply making them. I used props and sets, a model and an assistant to spill milkweeds from above the frame. It felt like a lot of stuff, a lot of moving parts.

As a writer who began photographing after two decades of working with words on a page, composition meant story. Composition meant narrative. It contained something a little deeper than three dimensional space. Writing contains an element that allows composition to enter the fourth dimension, the dimension called time.

I am trying to conjure a whiff of that element in my photographic compositions.

If you can, check out the show at 5ive & 40rty. 541 Trade Street in sunny Winston-Salem.