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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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On The Distractible Tendency of Crowds
Continue ReadingI once believed that crowds were more or less unified; at first glance it seems that way. After all, people have gathered in the same place at the same time for the same reason, presumably to enjoy the same event. Then I began taking photographs in the midst of human assemblies, studying the images […]
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Wildlife Friends of Cairo
Continue ReadingThe sparrows living on Sharia Nabil El Wakkad in the Dokki district of Cairo enjoy a rich environment. Large trees shelter them with year-round foliage — useful for sleeping — and the massive concrete buildings have chinks on their outer walls big enough for nest-building. A maze of balcony rails, electrical and telephone wires, air […]
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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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Why Do They Stare At Me?
Continue ReadingI like to work quiet places with few people. I avoid well-traveled locations; however, one must make exceptions for our spectacular canyons. (Above) No matter where I set up to photograph, passersby stare at me. I get a typical question from the gregarious personalities (usually a woman over 30 years): “What are you taking […]
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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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It Seems Too Simple
Continue ReadingI have heard it said: “Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.” I have wondered if that is true, because it seems too simple. I looked at this tree outside my window through a 300mm lens for a long time before I took this frame. Has the hypothesis been proven? I […]
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Is This Photograph Readable?
Continue ReadingMost photographs have obvious meaning when considered as a flat surface, even if simply: “I was there, and this is what I saw.” If you have special knowledge of the subject you might go deeper, however the significance lies close to the picture plane. Other photos might signify something more. For instance: “I was there, […]
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Imitating Another Man’s Process
Continue ReadingIt is fun and also instructive to imitate the style of a different type of photographer — in this case Garry Winogrand, a prolific artist who died with many rolls of film unprocessed plus several hundred thousand pictures developed but unedited, and still he passed on to us an extensive body of finished work. He […]
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In The Backyard During Quarantine
Continue ReadingMiddle-aged and older Americans will recall a time when communal experiences happened with fair regularity — not the world-historical, generational events like war, earthquake and famine necessarily — but mundane happenings in television shows, and excitement generated by the release of new musical albums. In the old days we even paid attention to the speeches […]
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