Somewhere about 50 years ago, someone gave me a camera. Not just any sort of camera–but a brand new Polaroid Model 125 instant satisfaction camera! In the mid-1960s, these contraptions sold for the princely sum of about $130–one might think an extravagant gift for a 9 year old boy. At the root of it was what I now believe to be parental guilt. We were traveling by car all about the eastern half of the US like vagabonds, seeking peace and roots for a family that had been disrupted by tragedy.
This was still the classic age of roadside and small town America before the advent of interstate highways everywhere, with each new day’s journey down the two lane trail opening up the heart of mainstream life and the things that inhabited it. Soon it was apparent that I had an eye for the unusual. It was a sense of interest in the details of things–often unnoticed or glossed over by others. And with my trusty tool from Dr. Land–I began to record what I saw. Honestly, I was hooked with the magic of capturing a slice of the world in abstraction of its setting–and allowing it to tell a story that others appreciated.
Segue ahead many years from this, and the pursuit of imagery had been full and rich. My greatest discouragement came with a devastating house fire in 1984 that took all of my possessions with it, including a catalog of negatives and prints that were 18 years in the making. Life gives us the tools to pick up and recover–and my photography came along with this new beginning. Each year brought learning, new gear, and a refinement of interests in photography as art. Except as gifts or home decoration display none of this was ever presented to the public–or really thought about as a vocation outside of the professional work I had done for others.
For years, those that viewed my work encouraged me to enter contests or find avenues to sell my images. Always I could get right to the point of it, and then decline the challenge with an excuse or other circumstance that competed for attention. At the beginning of 2015, a new vigor took me. Looking through my catalog of hundreds of interesting images, I knew it was time and began the process of building the systems necessary to create fine art photographs for others. Much I already had in my possession from previous “near ventures” and the building up of film equipment and a worthy darkroom.
Digital opens many doors. Not that my love of wet chemistry photography has waned–but has had additional tools and methods added to extend the range of my creativity and ability to produce exceptional images. This blog is to be a ‘safety valve’ for thinking and ideas which I encounter as I move forward into the public face of art. Photography is about light and the moment. It is even more about the thinking that leads to a production. May you find some enjoyment in this road across the landscape that I have taken…