“Let the subject generate its own photographs. Become a camera.” — Minor White
You’ve probably heard that Brett Favre (4) has moved from our Green Bay Packers to the (green) Jets. At our Sunday brunch this noon, as the Packers played, and ultimately tamed the Lions 48 -25, we were treated to a Favre fan who wore a “fusion” jersey.
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Last week I was given the opportunity to photograph an ‘ancient’ stone carving for the purpose of evaluation by experts in antiquities. Working with this object, arranging light to bring out its form, color and texture without exaggeration, proved a challenge. With each failed attempt I learned more about this beautiful object and the light falling upon it. Click this link for additional views of this remarkable piece of stone. Vertical = 8.575″, Horizontal A = 7.755″, Horizontal B = 4.043″
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“No matter what you talk about in life there seems to be a scale: left to right, top to bottom, right to wrong. I can now add a new one… journalism to design. These are the two ends of the scale that I exist in as a photographer. At one extreme my work is pure journalism and at the other it’s little more than eye candy.” — Neil Turner
“Photography suits the temper of this age — of active bodies and minds. It is a perfect medium for one whose mind is teeming with ideas, imagery, for a prolific worker who would be slowed down by painting or sculpting, for one who sees quickly and acts decisively, accurately.” — Edward Weston
Indian Summer Festival, Milwaukee, WI — 2008
Link to slide show of additional images
“Fashion, flowers, nudes and portraits — they’re all the same: light, form, color. And mystery. And mystery is very important. When I started photographing flowers, I thought, ‘My God, where have I been?’ I’m totally addicted to this project. I’d never seen the mysteries of a flower. We walk by wonders every day and don’t see them. We only stop at what shouts the loudest.” — Barbara Bordnick
“You give a man color film, and sooner or later you will catch him out in the garden taking pictures of flowers. This seems inevitable. He just can’t resist. He’s got this colorful film, y’see, and he spies this colorful flower, and… well, not being a chimp, he does realize that there are enough flower pictures in the world already, and that the one he’s about to take isn’t going to be of any use to anybody. But he can’t help himself. It’s too great a temptation to resist. He succumbs to the weakness.” — Anonymous – from his 1/18/04 Sunday Morning Photographer article
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“They are imbeciles who call my work abstract. That which they call abstract is the most realistic, because what is real is not the exterior but the idea, the essence of things.
When you see a fish you don’t think of its scales, do you? You think of its speed, its floating, flashing body seen through the water… If I made fins and eyes and scales, I would arrest its movement, give a pattern or shape of reality. I want just the flash of its spirit.” — Constantin Brancusi
yesterday: a leaf
fell as I walked to the car
evidence of change
(Leica R8/DMR, 6omm Macro Elmarit)
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some days
people flock to the edge
where water meets sand
they sculpt, toss things back and forth,
and mingle with birds
A dad, sculpting sand on the beach
with his daughter, Mia, said to me,
“It’s all about the kids.”
I think, perhaps, it’s all about returning
to childhood for a brief,
careless time.
“I believe that photography loves banal objects, and I love the life of objects.” — Joseph Sudek
one of Dad’s vises
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“I have no way of portraying the lives of others. I portray my own.” — Jan Saudek
Scheme to put yourself in the path of beautiful landscapes, buildings, art, and creatures.
as a child i chased
butterflies with a net
now i chase images
Once caught, I never knew quite what to do with the butterflies. I looked at them under a microscope. I marveled at their color and delicate lightness. I ended up feeling uneasy that, as I studied them, they became less beautiful; battered and wounded. In the end I gave up catching butterflies in nets. Now, catching fleeting moments on a light sensitive surface, I find the opposite. The images become more beautiful as I study them; push the edges around; pull information from them; adjust the colors, tonality and contrast. Yet, I still don’t know what to do with my catches.
Yesterday, arriving at a favorite bluff, overlooking the great lake Michigan, I found and caught the following:
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“If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up.” — Richard Avedon
some places and people
wish to be seen
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