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Photo Sequence — The Turkish Saleslady
Continue ReadingI share four portraits made in a Turkish market — ordered consecutively — beginning with our subject’s salutation. The lady had linens for sale: table-cloths, scarves, bed sheets and other pieces, some expertly embroidered. She was an accomplished actress; at her command she had an array of facial expressions, from greetings to allurements to frowns […]
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Concerning The Elvis Mythology
Continue ReadingI know for sure Elvis is gone. I visited his grave once. That happened in the yard at Graceland Mansion in Tennessee where I sensed only his symbolic reality with no animating presence. Beside me three fellow tourists lined up in a different attitude, folded their hands and bowed their heads, behaving as if they […]
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Veteran Rider In Deep Thought
Continue ReadingThe man’s expression both puzzles and captivates me; his manner has undercurrents and appears to lack consistency. The jockey’s mouth shows resignation, blended with what might be an incipient smile, all unrelated I think to the coming horse race. (His mind appears occupied with more personal matters.) His head tilts down yet he has the […]
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Taking The Easy Shot
Continue ReadingOn occasion effortless images become my favorites. I call this shot easy because photographing children in poor countries creates only modest challenges. The youngsters lack suspicion; they might feel important owing to a stranger’s interest in them, so they press forward naively rather than drawing back from the lens. The difficult task for the camera […]
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American Iconography
Continue ReadingRugged and broad-shouldered, luxuriously bewhiskered, even when weighed on a scale opposite Moses of the Bible and the Prophets. Masculine and virile, he would thrive on the 18th century frontier among wilderness hunters and pathfinders — a raw and sometimes brutal life of hard labor — chopping trees, cutting trails, living by the rifle and […]
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Portrait of a First Sergeant
Continue ReadingThe man is an actor. More precisely a re-enactor, part of an American tribe in whom history lives organically, the past daily inhabiting thoughts and feelings. He does a good job portraying an aging sergeant of the Civil War. Anyone holding that rank would have served prior duty, meaning the Mexican War, the sieges of […]
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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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An Unusual Self-Portrait
Continue ReadingIt is a portrait within a mirror-image, an excellent likeness; however this picture has importance for me because of its setting. While traveling by automobile in Turkey we came upon a railroad museum. I began to explore one of its locomotives then noticed a specially-outfitted train car nearby. I stepped inside and realized I had […]
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