Order in the Court

The myth of the ordered life is so appealing when it's commercially packaged well. I have a thing for kitchen stores and office supply shops, art ones too. I love how great things can look lined up and new.

This shot is from a cozy independent kitchen store I visited this summer in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. I don't use these one cup no-fuss gizmos but their mini coffee containers caught my eye.

I am drawn to the way space lines up, which makes a certain sense. It's a photographer's obsession - lining up space. Think Margaret Bourke-White. Paul Strand with his dinnerware. Sebastiao Salgado. The list goes on.

I think I'm attracted to simple order because my head is a dense forest - an intriguing place but, damn, a hell of a mess.

Above Ground

You know the expression, keeping your head just above water?
It means to live slightly above chaos that's the size of an ocean
I wonder, what would it mean to say, I'm just keeping my feet above ground?

Vintage Chic

The southern landscape is rich real estate. Forget the lists of richest places to live. Forbes doesn't really determine value, it just thinks it does.

This house is on a dirt road in Virginia. There are just so many priceless elements - like the nail that's hooked onto the falling gutter. It's as long as a finger.

Testing, Testing, One Two Three

Got a little tutoring help today on the computer and wondered if this image has a stronger presence than the earlier one?

Chocolate Celebration

The highlight of this week was celebrating my friend pictured here. She just turned two and had a delicious piece of chocolate cake at her party.

One of the favorite things we like to do together is growl. Try it. It will make you feel good.

Lifting Off

Came across this the other day. Love it. Still love it.

The light is pure crazy magic. The image of this photograph came to me late one afternoon when I went into the parking garage to get my car. The light fell into each metal rectangle like glass itself.

I'm writing notes these days for a possible piece that begins in high school. This portrait takes me back there. Like the girl in this shot, I had a certain tomboy practicality early on - it's a tool that continues to serve me well to this very day.

Unclear Vision

Monday morning and I just can't see what's next. Obsessing a little about that right now, and also aware that it doesn't matter much. My good friend is at this moment in surgery. It's a serious situation and what my art means or doesn't mean seems like selfish rot.

This image is about seeing beauty, feeling the wind, taking time, and, who knows, maybe even taking flight.

Editorial?

Third parties witness other peoples' intimacy. What's going on is viewed from outside the direct action.

For me, making photographs is an intimate relationship. I make an image and then the image makes me. We work together from interrelated perspectives. We speak an unspoken language. We share history. And, lest this turn too lofty, we screw up.

My blathering is all a preamble to yesterday's portfolio review with artist/juror, Colin Quashie. A third party came into play. It felt very odd to hear a different voice speaking.

Quashie said more than once, Your work is very editorial.

Editorial? I asked more than once.

Yes, he said, look up Getty Images.

I am still scratching my head.

Fighting the Enemy

There's this nagging thought that sticks with me. What does it mean? A photograph needs to contain meaning. I aim for that, believe in it even.

And, yet, the truth is I don't always understand the meaning. It's not explicit.

This new image seems to be simply about beauty and light. Is that enough? I didn't really think so until last night when I heard a great talk by the poetry scholar Ed Wilson. He quoted Yeats, who said that time is the enemy of beauty.

So there it was - an answer. I am fighting the enemy by capturing beauty.

Monday Morning Focus

Look at her eye, her profile, her one foot in front of the other approach.

That's what I'm aiming for this morning as I look at the week. Working for myself, it's not always clear how to call myself to attention in this way.

But I'm trying here. I really really am.

Yippee

It's Friday and beautiful outside and I just made a great decision I'd been going back and forth about for way too long. This image speaks to the joy of letting go. Decision can mean freedom.

Even though it may look like I was imitating that iconic Marilyn Monroe photograph here, I wasn't. The wind is strong up on Nod Hill. When a gush of wind came up, we both reacted.

The fingers in the shadow thrill me beyond what is sensible.

A Little Rusty

Got home from nirvana and had to jump right in and write a few things. Wow, I am either really rusty and out of practice or writing just takes a lot longer than I remember.

I always enjoyed what Eudora Welty said about writing, "I don't like writing, but I do like having written."

Heading In

This is me. This is me with four legs and a white tail. This is me bolting from the perfectly fine, nicely mowed lawn in favor of the forest.

I am back home in the land of lawns and political lawn signs. Kind of flat and uninviting stuff compared to the wild.

Returning from long trips away always puts me in the mind frame for comparisons. Here vs. there. It's an inevitable part of the adjustment, the return.

Climbing Back

Stairs are an obvious symbol of transition. These well-worn stairs from one of the studios at Weir's farm suggest the way I'm looking at my life right now, post-residency. I see where I need to go, but haven't started yet. Today I'm pushing myself to begin in earnest.

Returning home.

It's a phrase with lots of reverberation.