Light and Time

"What makes photography a strange invention - with unforeseeable consequences - is that its primary raw materials are light and time" - John Berger

Photography is truly painting with light, and with the light ever changing by every single instant, a photographer, like a Boy Scout, needs always be prepared. Henri Cartier-Bresson speaks of the decisive moment, but that moment in time and that particular light cannot be recorded unless the photographer is prepared with camera at hand and with a keen eye for what is to come - to anticipate the scene that is about to unfold.

Very early morning street scene, Dallas, Texas, 2008.

Heartland - Farm, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

This scene in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was just a few blocks from my hotel and seemed to be begging to be photographed and added to my Heartland series. An early morning sun, a nice Midwestern sky, along with some judicious framing produced this image on Ilford Delta 100 film.

I used my Hasselblad X-pan on the normal 35mm frame ratio setting, rather than the panoramic ratio setting. The ability to switch between two different capture ratios makes it a quite versatile camera for me.

Heartland - Grapevine, Texas

Grain mills and silos are ubiquitous within the Midwest landscape and have always been a photographic attraction for me. I happened upon this series of silos at just the right moment when the sun was highlighting a single cylinder.

Storage silos, Grapevine, Texas, 2008

The Unique Print

There is an intimate pleasure in creating tactile art; a pleasure that is sorely missing from computer-based art. Art of the hand is much more satisfying to the psyche and allows for unique, one-of-a-kind artwork that, while filled with all of the foibles and artifacts and inaccuracies that occur with handmade art, give the art life, and perhaps, even a soul.

I am currently revisiting using instant film in my art, creating emulsion lifts and emulsion transfers, modifying old techniques for the modern emulsions that are coming out of Ilford and Fujifilm. They are quirky, inaccurate, and a bit frustrating at times due to working with cameras and lenses that are 30 to 70 years old, but, they are oh, so satisfying.

Calla Lilies, Anniversary model Speed Graphic camera, Polaroid 4x5 film, Arches watercolour paper

Happy New Year 2015

I have a ritual of creating new images on the first day of each new year and this year has been no exception. A visit to the downtown and sponge docks area of Tarpon Springs is always fruitful as it seems that there is something interesting to photograph on each and every street corner and all the points in between.

I decided to experiment with my Polaroid Spectra camera using The Impossible Project Silver Shade film. This image was created with the original version of the film, so it's quite unpredictable and every image is a surprise. (Sometimes it's a surprise to simply get any image.) The film needs to be shielded from sunlight, so it's imperative to slip each image immediately into a light-tight container or, at the least, a coat pocket. I'm looking forward to trying the new formula which is supposed to be more stable.

I wish everyone a peaceful and creative New Year in 2015.

Anartia jatrophae

"Anartia jatrophae" is the title of a new print of mine that will be on display at the gallery opening on July 12, 2014, at the Morean Arts Center in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida.

Each one of the 16 individual carbon piezography prints on bamboo that combine to create the finished 24" x 32" (60.96 cm x 81.28 cm) piece of artwork  is hand-pinned to the substrate, much in the manner of a captured butterfly in a collection.

The piece is also available in a finished size of 48" x 64" (121.92 cm x 162.56 cm).

I hope to see you at the exhibition opening.

St. Petersburg, Florida - The Pyramid Pier

The first City of St. Petersburg Pier was the Railroad Pier, built by the Orange Belt Railway back in 1889. The most elaborate was the Million Dollar Pier, with its Mediterranean revival architecture, which was completed in 1926. It was demolished in 1967, to make way for the current inverted Pyramid Pier, which was opened to the public in 1973. The Pyramid Pier was closed in 2013 due to structural deterioration.

It remains to be seen what style of architecture will replace the current pier. In the meantime, it still makes for a fetching photographic subject.

New Years Day 2014

I love photographing at Howard Park in Tarpon Springs and it's been the inspiration for many of my Floridays images throughout the years. Continuing a tradition of creating new images on New Years Day, I went out to see a very strange sight as the Gulf of Mexico was at the lowest tide I had ever seen. It was quite surreal, like an other-wordly view, as I was able to walk out for several hundred yards on what was usually the bottom of the sea. A strange start to a whole new year.

Beijing Rickshaw Driver

Although many of the quaint and culturally rich areas that I visited a few years ago have been torn down as they were replaced in an effort to 'modernize' for the 2008 Olympics, the Peoples Republic of China is still a fantastic country to photograph.

This portrait of the traditional rickshaw driver is one of my favorite images as it presents that cultural juxtaposition of the 'old' and the 'new' that I have often experienced throughout my visits to China.

Rickshaw driver, Peoples Republic of China, 2004

Source - An Ongoing Series

A series, like any body of work, is created over a period of time, which, in the case of Source, has been a period of almost ten years.

In this era of instant gratification, it is sometimes difficult to understand the concept of a project that is years in the making and development. We tend to look for the immediate and we so often forget the simple, yet extreme, satisfaction that comes with savoring the time and creating photographs, instead of merely taking snapshots.

Working with silver gelatin film allows one to slow down and actually think about the process of photography, yet you can't get bogged down in the technical, for the concept of the final image has to be constantly in the forefront of creation. It's never a simple matter of taking a bunch of snapshots and hoping you can find something worthwhile by messing around with some plug-ins or actions in some editing program or app. You have to be able to plan from the very beginning; camera selection, film selection, metering and exposure methodology, development process, and finally, the print process.

It's so very exciting to see the pre-visualization of the scene come to life in the final print.