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Ghosts #1 — Great-Great Uncle Frank Ezra
Continue ReadingHe does not seem like a Frank, Or an Ezra. He looks like me, At his age. Setting aside aspects of his nose — and the mutton-chops, Together we make two poles of a doppelganger pair. Photograph from the 19th Century — image creator(s) unknown.
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Human Hands VI — A Modern Mona Lisa
Continue Reading“Paying attention directly to objects and people in our world comprises maybe half our waking consciousness; the remainder of the day and night we spend in dreams, visions, and essentially comatose states of being.” From the Notebooks of C.R. Howerton The right hand of our foreground subject (the round-faced lady with curly hair) […]
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Noticing the Trivial and the Overlooked
Continue ReadingRhopography: A category of art. The visual representation of trivial, commonplace, usually overlooked things: uneaten food on a plate, a lost glove, wilting flowers. Still life. Photographers practice rhopography when they capture found still life compositions — such as the two pictured here — not set-up or constructed on purpose but discovered accidentally and […]
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Considering Human Hands (1)
Continue ReadingPictures of hands make a freestanding genre of photography. Some operators take older hands for subjects, making the work more likely to succeed; even relaxed digits of elderly humans reveal character and tell a personal story. An electronic search reveals pictures of human hands in the hundreds of thousands: for instance, feminine hands hold flowers […]
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Learning From Joseph Conrad
Continue Reading“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 […]
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Edvard Munch Revelations
Continue Reading“My fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness. Without anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder. My art is grounded in reflections over being different from others. My sufferings are part of myself and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art. […]
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An Atypical Commonplace
Continue ReadingSunsets are common and a bit tired. Nevertheless they are irresistible at times and will surprise you. This one has something aerodynamic and singular happening in the sky — the land seems to address the atmosphere and from the air an echo responds. After sundown in deserts a crescendo often manifests; however the shape of […]
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In Defense of Piranhas
Continue Reading“I have first to confess to a considerable dislike of photography as everyman practises it. I detest the sight of bands of tourists armed with cameras, and snapping everything into non-existence, like so many piranha-fish.” From An Essay by John Fowles in Land, containing a portfolio of photographs by Fay Godwin. Our photograph dates from a […]
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Another Found Still Life
Continue ReadingThis brings to mind 17th century Dutch paintings, some monumental, depicting markets selling vegetables, wild game, organ meats and fish in strange varieties. Rembrandt and others made disemboweled animals into works of art. Here the Turkish butcher arranges complete carcasses meticulously. It appears he made aesthetic choices — perhaps unconsciously — nevertheless that prompts me […]
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Quoting From Images, Vol. 2
Continue ReadingMany notables have photographed this wall of stains above White House Ruin. None that I know made images from this head-on wide-angle perspective portraying so much of the canyon wall. I am quoting from the work of two men, one at work in the 19th Century (Timothy O’Sullivan) and the other from the 20th […]
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