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Mogollon Rim Still Life
Continue ReadingThe Mogollon Rim (pronounced locally: mug-ee-yon) is a high ridge — many miles long — running east and west across Northern Arizona. It is formally called escarpment. Some sections looking south provide views of mountains and timber as far as the human eye can see. Forest roads lead off the Rim into secluded places, […]
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Looking For The Essence
Continue ReadingDuring a change in my life I found work in this isolated place where I had no personal connections. I knew the location from reading a map, but had not investigated the district further. I had not seen my future workplace, and never inspected beforehand the apartment provided to me as part of my compensation. […]
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What Is The Subject Here?
Continue Reading“Photography performs one function supremely well: it shows what something or somebody looked like, under a particular set of conditions at a particular moment in time. This specificity has been, and remains, photography’s boon as well as its bane …. An earnest and honest appreciation of subject matter is the genesis of a clearer, deeper […]
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A Real Gully-Washer
Continue ReadingIt does rain in the desert. This photograph taken outside Phoenix, Arizona is my testimony. On these extraordinary occasions the sky might split wide open; and enough water then falls to form temporary rivers and tiny lakes.
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What Was He Thinking?
Continue ReadingI took this photograph from a taxi moving approximately 50 miles per hour in chaotic traffic; the Levantine Sea forms the backdrop. May we draw conclusions after studying this picture? Perhaps the father’s life is worth more than his daughter’s life and health; or his being-in-the-world has more value than the wife’s existence, who rides […]
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Born With Charisma
Continue ReadingUnlike my habitual portrait subjects — most of whom are strangers or brief acquaintances — I know a lot about this fellow. In fact I helped raise him up from a tiny critter with a tadpole look and a cone-shaped head. I caught him as he slithered out from his mother’s body, and looked […]
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You’re Definitely Not In Kansas Anymore
Continue ReadingOn your first journey beyond the Western World even routine situations will flummox you. You cannot avoid these gopher holes despite prior study and meticulous planning. If you stay gone long enough — exposing yourself nakedly and with bravery — hard experience will shatter preconceptions, adding a new and more spacious dimension to your character. […]
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Bending In Prayer on a Chilly Afternoon
Continue ReadingThere is a tiny mosque — basically an empty storefront with public faucets — located every two or three blocks in Cairo, Egypt. Some preachers at these modest places on Friday draw crowds of worshipers, at times overflowing the sidewalk into the street, where mats must be rolled out to form a continuous surface for […]
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Black and White Purity
Continue ReadingIf you survey current, ultramodern monochrome photos you will find an abundance like mine above, where near-coal blackness juxtaposes with higher-valued tones without much progression in between. This captures a West African musician at the climax of his performance; however usually the subject is landscape, cityscape or architecture, made with equipment designed to produce […]
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Man Focused On Winning
Continue ReadingI made this portrait of a rider mounted on a thoroughbred horse in muted sunlight a few minutes before a race. The image reflects his determination to win. His lips are grimly set, head upturned toward future victory, overall projecting strength and confidence. Nevertheless his face shows some diluting of that expression. I perceive […]
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