Archived entries for Photos
Home Sweet Home
Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA
Giant
I wish I could be a giant, then I could lie with my head near the snows on one of the Alps, lie there among the goats, with my toes splashing below in the deep lake. So I would lie there and never get up again, between my fingers the bushes would grow, and the wild roses of the Alps in my hair, my knees would be alpine foothills, and vineyards would stand on my body, and houses, and chapels. And so for ten thousand years I lie there, and gaze into the heavens, and gaze into the lake. When I sneeze, there’s a thunderstorm. When I breathe the snow melts, and the waterfalls dance. When I die, the whole world dies. Then I journey across the world’s ocean, to bring back a new sun.
Where am I going to sleep tonight? Who cares! What is the world doing? Have new gods been discovered, new laws, new freedoms? Who cares! But up here a primrose is blossoming and bearing silver fuzz on its leaves, and the light sweet wind is singing below me in the poplars, and between my eyes and heaven a dark golden bee is hovering and humming–I care about that. It is humming the song of happiness, humming the song of eternity. Its song is my history of the world.
– Hermann Hesse
Secret City
So I want to try something new around here. I take a good amount of pictures throughout the week. Sometimes it’s because certain colors or architecture catch my eye, maybe an interesting texture, or something ironic. And while I don’t have any sort of secret ambition to become a photography wiz, it would be nice to catalogue them somehow, somewhere.
I think it’s a valuable exercise to take photos. It offers a nearly instant process for experimenting with things like framing a composition, observing the principles of natural phenomena like light and physics, and manipulating the perception of those phenomena. Not to mention, capturing and expressing narrative.
I thought a little bit about starting an entirely separate blog to share the photos, but honestly, when I see other artists compartmentalize their work across various blogs, it makes me crazy. There is already too much to keep track of in life, people! This is why they invented tagging. And anyway, since this blog in large part is to record and share my process, I think the photos have a valid place here. I hope you all think so, too.
So I’ll be cataloging all my photo ventures under the ‘Secret City’ tag. Look out, San Francisco.
Snow
A couple of weeks ago I got my wish and fatty snow flakes started drifting down onto Portland rooftops in the middle of the afternoon. By the time daylight was gone, the city was a wreck. It took chris more than 5 hours to get home from work. He swears to me there were zombies on the road. Later that night we walked to a nearby bar and cozied up with friends over hot food and drink. Not particularly unusual, but I remember thinking, this is a great night. I think snow is magic that way.
Remembering Apollo 11
“As I walked away from the Eagle Lunar Module, Neil said ‘Hold it, Buzz’, so I stopped and turned around, and then he took what has become known as the ‘Visor’ photo. I like this photo because it captures the moment of a solitary human figure against the horizon of the Moon, along with a reflection in my helmet’s visor of our home away from home, the Eagle, and of Neil snapping the photo. Here we were, farther away from the rest of humanity than any two humans had ever ventured. Yet, in another sense, we became inextricably connected to the hundreds of millions watching us more than 240,000 miles away. In this one moment, the world came together in peace for all mankind.”
- Buzz Aldrin in Apollo Through the Eyes of the Astronauts
I have tremendous respect for astronauts. To be so empirically brilliant and yet still have that ferocious spirit of adventure–extreme sports ain’t got nothin’ on ‘em, if you ask me. Most astronauts devote their entire lives to the study of space and keep up rigorous physical training without knowing if they’ll ever get the chance to even be part of a mission. See more of these amazing Apollo images here.
Evie
I love this old photograph of my grandmother from Christmas of ’75. It’s exactly how I always imagined her when my mother would talk about her–that broad smile, coffee and cigarette in hand. And how ’bout that couch, huh? My grandparents eventually separated (according to legend, because they were just both so darn stubborn). Years after she had passed away I was talking with my grandfather and asking questions about her. He simply replied that, “She was the finest lady of my life.”
Vintage Roadster
I’ve been going through some old family photos lately. The above photograph is of a car that my grandfather built, with some kind of registration number written on the back. He carried this around with him in his wallet for years. Unfortunately, when he was older and living in an assisted living home, one of the nurses accidentally washed his wallet along with his pants, damaging the photo.
Lately…
I’ve been hard at work in a new studio space on some pieces that I think will develop into a larger series. I’ve been experimenting with some new processes, trying to get back to traditional methods and away from the digital realm. Nothing is ready to be shown just yet. Hopefully soon. In the meantime, here is some life drawing from a couple weeks past. A 20 or 30 minute pose I think, focused on brushing up my sighting/measuring practices.
