“A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art must carry its justification in every line. And art itself may be defined as the single-minded attempt to render the highest kind of justice to the visible universe, by bringing to light the truth, manifold and one, underlying its every aspect. It is an attempt to find in its forms, in its colours, in its light, in its shadows, in the aspects of matter and in the facts of life what of each is fundamental and essential — their one illuminating and convincing quality — the very truth of its existence.”

Joseph Conrad, From the Suppressed Preface to The Nigger of the Narcissus.

Conrad’s first sentence has lodged in my brain these past forty years. Perhaps because he is an English prose grand master I never thought to apply his exhortation — and his lofty principles — to visual art. It seems to me that any artist — perhaps any human being struggling for fulfillment — can learn something from Conrad’s preface; it is dense and layered with meaning as in practically all his paragraphs. Joseph Conrad made this statement during a personal transformation from Seaman to Writer. He says when he finished Narcissus he experienced an epiphany: “Almost without laying down the pen I wrote a preface, trying to express the spirit in which I was entering on the task of my new life.” We should take his thoughts as a towering manifesto — something to strive toward during whatever remains of our lives.

It is significant our writer invokes humility; making art with a camera might be the most humble of creative undertakings. Few photographs justify themselves with each line, form, mass, shadow and zone of light, rendering “the highest kind of justice to the visible world.” I made this image with that single-minded effort, and I think it moves toward the righteousness Conrad talks about. It evokes the stillness of a winter scene on an abandoned stretch of river — with balance and coherence despite millions of aspects of matter to be recorded, and so many extraneous facts to be excluded. I too believe there is a kind of truth underlying everything visible to us. It is easier to perceive that reality if the many and various details he speaks about can be shaped into one aesthetic visual whole — truth, manifold and one.