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Survivor On A Salt Lake Sidewalk
Continue ReadingI saw our lady approaching a long way off — ambling in fits and starts down an incline toward me. I noticed surrounding pedestrians in the distance snap their heads toward her, as if reacting to a loud noise; just as quickly they turned back to their own business. When our survivor-of-the-modern-world stopped, she stood […]
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Two From The Vault
Continue ReadingFew of us in our lifetime will achieve the cool aloofness and concentration of this professional musician. And most of us would appear ridiculous (not nearly as hip) wearing a conical, horizontally-striped cap like the one covering our subject’s head. Somehow the keyboardist brings off his unflappable performance with ease and confidence — looking as […]
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Attempting Urban Symbolism
Continue ReadingOne sees fountains (real and simulated) all over Las Vegas, Nevada A constant irony in this arid location where rain falls sporadically. Exhortations to relax and be entertained — to indulge yourself — assail your every conscious moment. Winning is definitely not guaranteed. Here there are probably as many ways to lose your shirt (or […]
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Unidentified Whatchamacallit Near Bluewater, CA
Continue ReadingI found nothing tall, nothing familiar — no trees or structures, no animal forms in the surrounding terrain — to demonstrate (by visual means alone) the size of our exotic object. The hill I estimate rose sixty feet above marshes connecting to the Colorado River’s blue channel. The smiling humanoid in our photograph covered a […]
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Stopping By Pancho’s Gate
Continue ReadingWhen hunting photographs by automobile my mind numbs over the initial distances, across territory made sterile for me by repeated exposures. In that mode I passed the sign pointing to Pancho’s Place. The oddness of the scene must have triggered unwitting thoughts — taking some time to surface — because gradually over the next half […]
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Not Your Usual Travel Photograph
Continue ReadingThe illusion of a flat — developed, yet seemingly endless space — reminds us of the Great Plains or the Great Salt Lake Desert, and not anyplace in California at first glance. Nevertheless there are expansive valleys with flat bottoms here, desert playas, and industrial agriculture on a sprawling scale. Not your typical vacation photograph, […]
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Remembering A Fire-Eating Clown
Continue ReadingFrom early in the 21st Century comes a fire-swallower, an agile young woman shown in our first image standing on the shoulders of a male assistant. She balances then moves like a dancer on a tight-rope, performing with vigor and animation. Her hair (appropriately) is vibrant orange like the flaming torch she puts into her […]
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Death of the Grinning Girl
Continue Reading“None of your concern :)” The event produced excruciating sadness for this young woman’s parents, a cataclysm for any family; and because of its shocking and mystifying story-line, it is impossible for the rest of us to comprehend with rational thought why it happened. In a verdant setting at an inward curve of the Washington […]
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Entertainment By Surprise
Continue ReadingToday I experienced an unexpected all-morning pleasure. Two verdins — who are rare chickadees, desert-dwelling insectivores as tiny as hummingbirds and just as prone to plunging and darting, built a shelter right outside my library window to hatch their hoped-for offspring. It was most energetically and skillfully done, took six hours of continuous work by […]
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Practicing Photo-Illustration
Continue ReadingI have heard it said: “People by instinct interpret photos literally, therefore find it hard to comprehend them any other way.” By transfiguring a photo into an illustration — the same authorities observe — the artist creates spaciousness; now the viewer’s imagination may operate in counterfactual dimensions. The portrayal below derives from a photograph and […]
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