-
On Visiting A Bonfire-Site
Continue ReadingA Ruined Chapel in the California Desert Beyond the typical “I Was Here” announcements and the profanity left by PHUX; also disregarding the unfortunate pictures of women with no features beyond vulgar lips and distorted breasts, is there anything deeper here — anything of significance? There is no public history — nothing in newspapers […]
-
This Might Become a Collector’s Item
Continue ReadingA Catastrophic Fall from Power Near the bottom of our faded billboard, Arabic letters spell out (right-to-left): Mohamed Hosni Mubarak. The flattering illustration depicts a heroic man in the prime of life and solidly in control — the undisputed modern Egyptian Pharaoh who had ruled his kingdom twenty-eight years. Two years after I made […]
-
Who Invented The Mud Pie?
Continue ReadingIt is a simple question with a surprisingly elusive answer. Even Google turns up dry holes. No one knows where — neither the when nor the why — of the art of the mud-pie. One of those timeless things, It extends into the past until its origins blur and disappear from our view. Its future […]
-
Concerning My Belated Visit to the Hermitage
Continue ReadingWhile serving at a remote Air Force station in Alaska, I discovered Art History. We lived in dense forest inhabited by wolves among other wild beasts. Our base was in effect an isolated town with three paved streets. One two-story dormitory sat in the middle of everything, housing one hundred-fifty enlisted men; a day […]
-
More On the Human Tendency to Memorialize
Continue ReadingThis wall-shrine I photographed at a pizza place owned by Indian immigrants in the Mormon hamlet of Bicknell. It is the only place open here at night excepting the Qwik-Stop, which also closes at 10pm. The restaurant serves many varieties of pizza-pie with curried toppings, has Southeast Asian television shows playing continuously; nevertheless it has […]
-
Appreciating Catherine’s Greatness
Continue ReadingBusker: One who entertains on the street or another public venue expecting compensation through voluntary donations. Synonyms: Street Performer, Trouper. She was born Catherine Flaherty — in high school a competitive swimmer, later training to expert-level in acrobatics. She is now Cate Great, a world-traveling freelance circus entertainer. We see our subject performing on a […]
-
Racing Thoroughbreds Is Perilous Business
Continue ReadingI took this photograph minutes prior to a stakes race at Keeneland Racecourse in Kentucky, USA. In that instant, I was not fully conscious of the tense mental engagement permeating the scene. Nobody smiles, not one bit of levity emerges, and no chitchat passes among participants. Even the track official in the extreme right foreground […]
-
It’s Hard To Escape This Guy
Continue ReadingFeeling Lost In A Forest Of Symbols If you are like me, you sometimes feel lost in what seems an endless forest — infested and overgrown with imagery and symbolic forms — where no pure light and nothing tangible may penetrate. For instance, it seems every time I turn around I see this fictional character […]
-
Passing Through Still-Flourishing Small Towns
Continue ReadingOut-of-the-way settlements — found in forests and deserts, mountains and agrarian zones — naturally exist beyond interstate highways. In their locations they lack brisk commerce. An above-average number of residents depend on government for income. Driving through some of these towns creates melancholy — the places are so forlorn and drab. Our two photographs provide […]
-
After the Inferno
Continue ReadingIn late summer 2020, bolts of lightning struck near Cima Dome, a rocky promontory in the Mojave Desert. The strikes ignited both woodland and ground cover; by noon the next day 16,000 acres had burned; among the casualties: grasses, shrubs, trees and cacti all scorched and left for dead in the fire’s wake. The speedy […]
Latest Entries
A Most Challenging LookIn Cultural Anthropology, Environmental Portraiture, Street PhotographyIn their frankness her eyes disconcert me. She […]
Why I Came Home EarlyIn Autobiographical, Cultural Anthropology, Egypt, Middle EastAssume you are a middle-aged man born and raised in […]
A Scene From YesteryearIn Americana, Cultural Anthropology, Street PhotographyIn this slice of American history, relaxation — […]
On Visiting A Bonfire-SiteIn Art Historical, Cultural Anthropology, Pilgrimages, ReportageA Ruined Chapel in the California Desert […]
Another Anomalous VisionIn Americana, Cultural Anthropology, Inexplicables, Street Photography“If an extraterrestrial came to earth and […]