People – Page 23 – Imagist Blog

Portraits with real heart and soul

“Light is the shape and play of my thought… my reason for being a photographer.” — Barbara Morgan

My niece, Ellie, asked me to make photographs of she and her fiance, Sean, on Easter Sunday. She had long kept the idea of creating facsimiles for photographs I made of her parents some 39 years earlier. The rest of their series can be seen here.

And of course as long as we’re set up we also involved my granddaughter, Sophia, daughter, Tanya and son in law, Jerome. With more from their session here.

And of course my other niece, Mandy, and her husband, Greg, their son, Erickson and his new little sister, Libby. With additional possibilities here.

And of course there’s my sister, Donna, and brother-in-law, Ray, reenacting that day back in 1969; and their other possibilities here.

And my sweetheart, Ann – before striking the set.

“If I knew how to… “

“If I knew how to make a good photograph, I’d do it every time.” – Robert Doisneau.

“…an exercise in vigilance; the hope of noticing something which will make me understand more clearly what still resists being understood; what still lies obscured but at least now [is] glimpsed.” Dan Frank used these words to describe his role as an editor; in A Symposium on Editing, The Threepenny Review, Spring 2008.

These same words describe well the act of photography (when practiced with a degree of seriousness); photographers work in ways similar to editors.

(click image for larger view)

David and me; planning a shoot; and St. Patrick’s Day preparation

writers (don’t) meet up
David hosts the party for
he and i – just fine

(click images for larger view)

planning the easter sunday shoot with Ellie and Sean – testing a new light modifier – pleased

St. Patrick needs cookies – don’t you know?

A pow wow

a tiny infant
absorbs the pulse and songs of
a thousand generations

For a bit of context you can view a slide show of additional Pow Wow photographs made on Sunday, March 2, 2008, at the State Fair Grounds in Milwaukee, WI.

The deliciousness of this or that moment

“Expression to my way of thinking does not consist of the passion mirrored upon a human face or betrayed by violent gesture. The whole arrangement of my picture is expressive. The place occupied by the figures or objects, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything plays a part.” — Matisse

Then, from the kitchen in my brain, came, “like poets – photographers cook visual lyrics; a dash of content; proper ratio and proportion of all the ingredients; maintain a sense of spontaneity; always some emotional spice; and like every good cook – just knowing – the deliciousness of this or that instant.”

daughter, granddaughter

lunch within Casablanca

delightful timeshare