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Civil War Photographer, Irritated
Continue ReadingI was attending a Civil War Re-Enactment of the Battle of Perryville when I encountered this gentleman. He was demonstrating vintage technique with an antique camera, impersonating a glass-plate photographer from the 19th century. I got interested in him as a human being, and not as the actor in a presentation, and so unobtrusively […]
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My Favorite Winter Trees
Continue ReadingDuring the past two winters I traveled north to photograph bare trees. I am inclined toward naked branches rather than limbs dressed in summer foliage. I like to see the structure of things, the patterns of the natural world, which seem endlessly surprising and worthy to contemplate. I took the photograph above at The […]
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Where Those Patterns Are Born
Continue ReadingI never thought much about the origin of decorative patterns on Native American artifacts, for instance those woven into Navaho rugs and clothing. While reviewing photographs from a trip last year, I stopped to study this image carefully for the first time. A burst of light transited my brain and finally I understood.
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Changing Cultures
Continue ReadingEvery world traveler has a tale of culture shock. I met a middle-aged man at a cafe in Istanbul before I plunged into the Nile Civilization; he constructed a sentence in a fashion I had not heard before. He made a city the subject, shock the verb, and culture with a possessive marker the direct object: […]
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Racing Fan With Voluptuous Feelings
Continue ReadingHere is a young woman watching thoroughbreds carry jockeys toward the finish line of a stakes race in Kentucky. It is simply a sporting event, yet it appears she is receiving sexual pleasure from the spectacle. If not sexual, then profoundly sensual gratification.
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Enthusiasms I Will Never Reach
Continue ReadingI have never been as joyful or animated as the women in these images. I cannot soar that high or reach that deep. I made these pictures at a night club in Asheville, North Carolina on a New Year’s Eve, a high time for everybody attending. It seems to me the ladies are approaching […]
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In The Days of Street Photography
Continue ReadingI am sharing two favorite images from my street photography days. There is good action in the foreground of both pictures, however the expressions of onlookers in the background — including those of the little kids in strollers — give me the most delight.
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Experiencing Other Observers
Continue ReadingWe are blind to other minds in the universe — except our fellow humans — and about them we have only our own thoughts about what they are thinking and feeling (theoretical knowledge) and no direct experience. I have always wondered how birds of prey see the world from their cruising altitude. The image above […]
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Humans Are Always Reaching Toward the Sky
Continue ReadingMost people in the Western world have seen church steeples and have formed an idea they are symbols of — or pointers toward — the divine reality. In temporal realms we see similar things. The Statue of Liberty (Lady Liberty) holds her torch of freedom toward the sky in a firm and muscular way, not […]
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Those Likeable Scoundrels
Continue ReadingWherever you go in the world you are bound to run into rascals like these. The Cairo Egyptian salesman above is called Mohammad, like half the men in the Middle East. He is a gifted smooth-talking Arab with a devastating sense of humor. You cannot help liking him. He will take your money and […]
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