Bridging the Gap

Spring is here (even though I saw snowflakes yesterday) and all those powerful forces of Nature are surging, thrusting up through the soil – and I am feeling horny to renew my photographic adventures.

A Certain Alchemy

Winter here in the Detroit area has been quite brutal this season.  I love the winter, the way snow neutralizes everything, simplifies everything to mostly black and white, creating an incredible back-drop for any color that does fight its way through.  However, all the snow creates problems as far as my Detroit photography goes because the massive task of clearing the streets in the city is, well, massive.  And the task is not one of those thoroughly completed missions as it is in the ‘burbs.  Piles of loose, slippery snow are everywhere in the city, just begging any driver to plow in and get stuck.  And where I go, I don’t want to get stuck!  

Past winters have been mostly barren and I could easily get into the city.

So I turn my attention to one of my other favorite subjects, cemeteries.  The bleached scenes in cemeteries suit the subject matter.  Death has been a curiosity for me as long as I can recall.  No, I am not a cutter and my fingernails are not painted black (though I must admit I have a fondness for darker music) and those essential questions (where did I come from?  what am I doing here?) came early to me in my adolescense.  It is a curious phenomena that we suddenly appear, have a short period of time to do whatever it is we do, and then disappear.  When I first discovered photography decades ago, I headed into the cemetery and taught myself how to make images.  It’s so peaceful, and many elements come together, the stone, greenery, trees (I love trees), ponds, animals…and one of my favorite attributes…solitude and quiet.  

Detroit is changing and I am pleased to see that.  When I started my photographic adventures in the city in 2004, the city was in ruins, literally.  One day (soon) I would like to move on and not visit Detroit for the kinds of photos I take because such subject matter has become scarce.  I want to move on with my camera to other terrain.

Today I discovered a photographer who might stimulate me to another place.  Yes, I always have my Eggleston mood, but another impulse runs much deeper in me that has been on the periphal of my awareness as long as I have had a camera in hand, tinted somewhat by my interest in metaphysical matters.  The photographer I ‘found’ today is from East Texas, Keith Carter.  He has eleven books published and one caught my eye, “A Certain Alchemy.”  I want to explore this man’s work and with the internet under my fingertips, do plan on delving into this mystical material.  He reminds me just a bit of Clarence John Lauglin.  I’m hoping I will discover some new dots to connect viewing the work of Mr. Cater.  I tend to discover influences.  Walker Evans was who took me through Detroit initially.  For me, it is this consciousness soup, a mix of all the ideas and images that come into my head, the pages of photos I pour over, the endless stream of offbeat movies, music from unchartered lands, books, and of course stimulation from the coffee bean.  

I have a feeling about Mr. Carter’s work, that it will leave a deep impression on me and perhaps move my image interests away from Detroit, something for which I have strived for some time now.

I really need to move on.

Picture This

This is a blog to investigate what is a photograph, and why I like to create them.  The act of photographing, of transforming awareness into an image of a frozen slice of time, fascinates me.

“I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs,” so said street shooter (and one of my favorites) Gary Winogrand.

What I enjoy most about photography is not the image itself but the experience of finding and capturing it.  A photograph, for me at least, is a verb.  I spend way too much time in my head, thinking about things.  Photography is a breather for me, a slice of time where I can go and just look at things with little thought about what I’m looking at, except if something does catch my inner eye, I’ll attempt to capture ‘something’ by aiming, thoughtlessly composing, and then pushing the shutter button.  Perhaps I got something, maybe not.  Who cares?  “Zen” and “photography” are synonymous for me.  No mind.

And for this reason, I photograph alone.

At first, I think I was fascinated with the whole magical process of capturing images.  I saw something, composed it in my viewfinder (or LCD screen) and with the push of a button, I had a flat image of what I was looking at.  That alone holds a certain fascination…for a while, at least.  I went out with an inexperienced shooter and watched for a while how this person worked.  There was close to no discrimination.  He looked around and something intruded his air space and got snapped.  A house.  A tree. a dog.  It really didn’t matter.  I think we have to develop ‘themes’ after doing this strange practice of making pictures.  I bet, if he continues, he will discover certain themes.

I have some themes and they cover a wide range of subject matter.  My favorites are offbeat collections of objects that are not often seen together, perhaps a chair in the middle of a vast field.  Visual non sequitur.

Nature is a high priority for me, but with a slight twist.  I like the things that are past the point of ripe, the little flaws, a bug-eaten leaf, a flower that has passed over to the other side.  THAT is far more interesting to me than the perfect rose.  I might want to contemplate that perfect rose, but I prefer the one that never made it to the dinner table.

Light fascinates me, especially at sunrise and sunset.  Photography (and a hungry cat) gets me up early and I really cherish those moments of golden light.

People.  I for the most part leave people out of my photos.  It’s not that I don’t like them, but I just feel better when they’re not around.