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An Especially Ebullient Man
Continue ReadingThis species of cheerful ebullience eludes me. No matter what potent drugs were circulated through my brain, I could not reach this exalted condition of mind and body. Nevertheless: here is proof that such a state of being is possible. His vintage turquoise pickup truck just adds to the joy.
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The Eyes Are Hardly Necessary
Continue ReadingA portrait requires a look into the eyes of the subject — or does it? Here I think we can tell a lot without the eyes. The lines and folds on the man’s face and neck reveal like tree rings a long life, a witness to an eventful stretch of history. There is an […]
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WYSIWYG, Portrait #1
Continue ReadingI am neither related to — nor acquainted with — my subject. I do not know how she occupies her time and have no biographical data about her. Her face interested me while I watched a Veterans Day parade from the sidewalk; she looked straight at me when I raised my camera, then gifted me […]
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Borrowing From Mrs. Cameron
Continue Reading“Mrs. Cameron exhibits her series of out-of-focus portraits of celebrities. We must give this lady credit for daring originality, but at the expense of all other photographic qualities. A true artist would employ all the resources at his disposal, in whatever branch of art he might practice. In these pictures all that is good in […]
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I Didn’t Think She Was Real
Continue ReadingShe calls herself a Living Statue. On street corners in Asheville, North Carolina she is known as The Silver Drummer Girl, a woman who has trained her muscles to an extreme degree, and therefore is able to remain utterly still on public sidewalks in excess of five minutes at a time, while standing on […]
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Young Woman In Reverie
Continue ReadingAround her an exuberant gathering quickens. People are tossing balloons, hugging each other and modeling festive headgear. Screams of excited women echo through the building. The band plays Afro-Cuban, muscular loud music in which percussion and horns dominate. On the platform a dance troop performs in a frenzy, spinning and twisting among the wild […]
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A Prayer Before Running
Continue ReadingI would stand near the thoroughbreds and mounted jockeys, observing them walk into a tunnel leading to the track. I noticed the human athletes wearing an array of expressions, from confidence and swagger to fear and anxiety. I caught this rider in the midst of a prayer. His face seems thankful and touched by […]
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When Will Our Civil War End?
Continue ReadingYou might live a whole life west of the Rocky Mountains and not realize this: the Civil War never ended, not for an army of amateur actors recreating historical encampments and battles. The war has not ended for many other modern people alive now in the Old Confederacy, who identify with a disappeared way […]
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The Mask Is The Meaning
Continue ReadingI was traveling by car with two companions along the Aegean coast near Ephesus. The driver — an Englishman with long experience in Turkey — suggested we detour through lush agricultural land. He knew this artichoke farmer personally; so when I asked to make photographs, the fellow was among friends and there was little […]
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