Category: Documentary

photographs about secrets

“If I had to pick a single word to describe what my pictures are all about, I would say ‘secrets.’ As a child I always had a secret world and my favorite book was A Secret Garden.” — Joyce Tenneson

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Each time the shutter clicks I’ve always had that feeling; as if my little black box may have just captured something like a secret. Something no one else has seen. When I opened the above image I felt as if I’d stepped back in time, to those wonderful fall days, as a boy lost in fantasies of adventure, at the edge of land.


Trick (or treat) 08

“In our society, most of us wear protective masks of various kinds and for various reasons. Very often the end result is that the masks grow to us, displacing our original characters with our assumed characters.” – Clarence John Laughlin

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Click this link for a slide show of additional photographs from Trick or Treat O8

Lasting impressions

What does it take to leave a lasting impression in this noisy world of excessive and often false hype? Some few man made objects possess qualities which cause the objects to remain useful and/or admired for their aesthetic appeal. I have 60 year old cameras which still produce stunning images. The camera manufacturers designed and built them to last, and work, for generations. The materials chosen; the machining of the parts; the ergonomics in use; all reached a state-of-the-art point. We can find similarly useful and beautiful objects in numerous fields of products. It seems appropriate to suggest that our own products: the words we share; the food we prepare; the work we produce; even our thoughts; would benefit from giving such close attention to aesthetics and usefulness; especially if we’re concerned with leaving a positive, lasting impression. I found these, last week, along the road, less travelled (click on image for larger view):

Poetry, Pictures ‘n Politics

Headline about sums up my life. Forty (or so) years ago poet Philip Whalen wrote:

Our main difficulty: fear and distrust of freedom

In America we’ve been fighting each other 100 years
We pretend we’re unimaginably rich
But we’re poor and afraid of the poor who must become
The Army to defend us against right and wrong

The real shame of America is the lack of an anti-clerical
Movement or party. All parties try to compound
With invisible State Protestant Church that theoretically
Doesn’t exist. Rubes who think of themselves as
Members in good standing are bilked and robbed

When did the dumb-bunny bomb first hit U.S.A?
How come everybody appreciated it so much?
Almost all Americans aged 4 to 100
Have the spiritual natures of Chicago policemen

Singer/songwriter Shawn Mullins performed at the historic Pabst Theatre Sunday, 9/21/08 (with Dar Williams headlining). Shawn reinforced my belief in the power of a talented story teller with a deep heart and a guitar. His character sketches bring to mind the people we’ve all met along life’s highway.

Selected “photographic” lyrics from Another Look by Shawn Mullins

Another look into her might just free me now.
I feel the drowning pounding of her pain
and her dreams like eyes,
as she looks into my sin.
So knowing where and why she’s looking through my window.
The cameraman wants to take her picture.
Now words spill out of hearts onto the stone,
and her image ties the knot of never knowing
the whole truth from lies.
Feels like I’m just now showing pictures to the man
whose dreams are realized.
He’s older now but he’s got newborn eyes.
Another look into her might just set me free.
I took her like a shot into my arm

Out and about with Bert and camera

“Photography is not about cameras, gadgets and gismos. Photography is about photographers. A camera didn’t make a great picture any more than a typewriter wrote a great novel.” — Peter Adams

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yesterday afternoon, lunch with Bert Stitt

then a walk about
the “east side” looking

and a drive to see Sophia

Brett Favre fusion jerseys

“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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An opportunity to communicate with the ancients

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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Indian Summer Festival

“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

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Careless time

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.

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