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A Disturbing Artifact of the Wild West
Continue ReadingWhen wandering a museum in the Southwestern United States, one expects reminders of bygone rugged lives, curated to local standards of conservative taste, intended to produce only mild provocations. I explored the exhibits in this archive anticipating relaxation — then this horror of an object confronted me. The outline and condition of the thing jolts […]
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Ghost Musician Near the Sunflower River
Continue ReadingThe Sunflower River flows serpentine-fashion through Clarksdale, Mississippi. In the same curvaceous manner it runs north and south out of the city among surrounding fields — planted mostly in cotton. I talked for an hour by the water with the subject of our street-portrait before making this image. I cannot remember his regular name or […]
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Memories Of Dean …. 1956-2011
Continue ReadingCaptured along a mountain road of continual switch-backs and treacherous hairpin turns, our image shows a homemade memorial — in itself a creative still life, arranged on a slope descending steeply toward the pavement. The shrine contains rich information about its subject, Dean, alive on our planet from the year 1956 until 2011, when he […]
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Human Hands VIII — The Indecent Gesture
Continue ReadingI took this picture in Western Carolina at a saloon packed with intoxicated customers. I did not expect one of these wholesome college girls with excellent dental hygiene would give me the finger as I operated my camera. It was such a crowded scene full of rowdiness I did not notice the obscenity until the […]
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Hands & Fingers In Anticipation
Continue ReadingThe picture is an emanation from what seems the deep past: the year 2006. I made this image at Keeneland Racecourse outside Lexington, Kentucky. Walking toward that track across a park lush with grass and trees, about to enter an institution esteemed among lovers of thoroughbred horses, you sense you have stepped upon consecrated ground, […]
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Noticing the Trivial and the Overlooked
Continue ReadingRhopography: A category of art. The visual representation of trivial, commonplace, usually overlooked things: uneaten food on a plate, a lost glove, wilting flowers. Still life. Photographers practice rhopography when they capture found still life compositions — such as the two pictured here — not set-up or constructed on purpose but discovered accidentally and […]
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Human Hands V — The Lady Aristocrat
Continue ReadingOur subject impersonates an 18th Century aristocratic lady — resplendent in wig and expensive garments — invited to a gathering at Petergof Palace outside Saint Petersburg, Russia. Active photographers the world over will recognize the message contained in her gesture: Don’t take my picture! It might scale up and generalize thusly: Stop what you are […]
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Human Hands III — The Ferry Driver
Continue ReadingOur subject pilots a passenger ferry many times daily across the Nile in Upper Egypt. I am standing with camera and longish lens on a raised platform making up the second-tier of his boat. Later on the observation deck — seated alone — I wonder about the gesture and open look bestowed on me by […]
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Ironic Juxtaposition — Evolution #2
Continue ReadingOur image might make you smile while you are enjoying its rich pigments. Perhaps you snicker at the garish misfortunes of others. The irony of the juxtaposition strikes you soon enough, creates a feeling of unease gradually devolving into remorse — a way of life has been lost; anarchy now prevails. A bed lies askew […]
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