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What Can You Tell From A Face?
Continue ReadingShe is our subject, however I can tell nothing biographical about her, and nothing intimate beyond what can be ascertained from this two-dimensional surface. Because of her obvious personal equilibrium, it appears as if the woman posed for this portrait. She did not; this is pure candid photography. She was standing at Keeneland Race Course […]
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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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Cairo Nights
Continue ReadingCars parked tightly on a narrow street. An automobile tire discarded between bits of trash. A television running off ghetto-rigged electricity. Men young and old together sitting, relaxed on upturned soda crates waiting for a football match to kickoff. A classic Egyptian scene during the Cairo Derby. The tournament ultimately crashes sports clubs Zamalek and […]
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The Rapacious Salesperson
Continue ReadingWhen reading books about human biological psychology in the past, I often ran across the phrase: reptilian brain. We apparently have this in common with all other back-boned animals; it emanates from structures internal to the base of our skulls closest to the cervical spine, and its neurons are believed to mediate our most primitive […]
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A Good Kind of Pride
Continue ReadingThe fireman in our foreground with polished ax seems swollen with pride in his occupation, however not from self-inflation or hubris that comes before a fall. On the contrary his demeanor seems to me without such vanity or arrogance. I see pleasure and satisfaction with his place in life, dignity in his bearing, a healthy […]
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Another From the Anomaly Collection
Continue ReadingAnomaly — Something different, abnormal, peculiar or not easily classified: something anomalous. A deviation from the common rule: irregularity. Aberration, exception, oddity, oddment, kink, mutation, error, paradox —- freak, monster, crackpot. The dictionary and thesaurus entries barely describe what we see in this image of a man wearing a giant deer head, taken in […]
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An Unnerving Discovery
Continue ReadingOn a trans-continental road trip I spent three nights in Goodland, Kansas, sleeping late and re-building stamina. One afternoon I visited in that provincial, high-plains town a museum of local history; there I came upon this equipment from a distant century. The profusion of wires unnerved me momentarily. Those cables might carry powerful surges of […]
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Observing Butterflies
Continue ReadingIn Egypt I observed two categories of women. The first I nicknamed penguins; older and generally overweight, they hide their figures so well under dark robes they appear as broad rectangles from behind when silhouetted on the street. They tend to waddle like those arctic animals and are equally anti-social. To the remaining females I […]
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A Group of Spiritual Athletes
Continue ReadingIf you have watched professional athletes stride into an arena before a contest — gear in hand — you will recognize the reference in our headline. They enter using a relaxed yet energized gait, arms and shoulders loose. They ooze confidence that comes from relentless years of training. Elite dancers ramble like that too. These […]
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Is This A Political Statement?
Continue ReadingIf our subject is attempting a political protest, I think he fails for lack of clarity. What inference should we draw from his pumpkin-headed mask, jumbo ears and gangster outfit — is he impersonating a politician, or a clown? He wears a suit, recently shined shoes, and is picketing a street corner in New Mexico […]
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