Category Archives: Up Close

“Give a man color film …sooner or later you’ll catch him in the garden…

“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 […]

A straight photograph cannot be abstract

“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 […]

chasing butterflies and blue skies

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 […]

creative object as stepping stone to a realm of meaning beyond itself

“It should be possible for even the photographer — just as for the creative poet or painter — to use the object as a stepping stone to a realm of meaning completely beyond itself.” — Clarence John Laughlin (click image for larger view) 

Access to Awareness precedes Awareness itself

“The whole point of [making] pictures is so you don’t have to explain things with words.” — Elliot Erwitt (click images for larger view) Brady Street Festival, 2008. Slide show of additional images from this event.

To compose = present the subject in strongest manner possible

“To compose a subject well means no more than to see and present it in the strongest manner possible.” — Edward Weston enjoy the summer blooms return quickly to earth with autumn’s approach (click image for larger view)

Flora now nests where fauna once did

“[I crop] for the benefit of the pictures. The world does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera [frame].” “What use is having great depth of field, if there is not adequate depth of feeling?” — W. Eugene Smith they appeared where once I photographed a family of feathered friends (click images […]