A tattered curtain and now just an old rag, but to my eye, it is so much more.
Gesture is hard to explain; gesture is that quintessential thing that gives what you are photographing a specific character. – Jay Maisel
I could go photograph pretty pictures of flowers and the landscape, but no, I find the edges of humanity and its debris beautiful to my eye.
”There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect.” - Gilbert Keith Chesterton.
Skies are grey, I'm looking for anything that will bring a happy glow.
Night or day, it doesn't matter where I go anymore, I just go.
Can't Wait - Bob Dylan
I loved the interplay between the snarling winged creature and his little demon.
My little demon is coming after me.
Lindsay Buckingham
When I saw this white wall with its torn surface creating the feathered edge, I thought it was beautiful and I had to make a photograph. Later after making the print, I keep going back and forth between looking at the white surface with the torn edge and looking at the darkened inner space of the crisscrossing layers. A good of example of “figure and ground”.
I am drawn to powerful, mysterious places... The 'creative haunting' of these locations has been imprinted on my spirit. - J.R. Baldini
Poor Man's Bronze is less than a mile from my house and I never scanned the place for photographs until Henry Paine in his excited way pushed me a little and opened my eyes. Thanks Henry.
"In my view you cannot claim to have seen something until you have photographed it."
Emile Zola
People ask me did you Photoshop this and I say, “absolutely”. “I used to work in the darkroom, but nobody asked if I darkroomed my prints, which I did.
“I see something special and show it to the camera. The moment is held until someone sees it. Then it is theirs.” – Sam Abell
Sand at Pfeiffer State Beach.
“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.” ― Rachel Carson
It’s that torn little bit that draws the eye and it was my job to compose so the gesture of the tear became the focus.
There is gesture in everything. It’s up to you to find a gesture that is most telling.
Jay Maisel
My mentor once said that people come upon an interesting subject and wind up taking a picture of the "whole damn thing. It's usually not the entire barn or car, but some part of it that is the photograph".
This old car in Death Valley I feel is a good example of not taking a picture of the "whole damn thing", but rather taking the time to find the "Gesture".
This is a very gratifying photograph for me, it was taken with my 4x5 camera and it was a challenge to set up the camera. All of the swings and tilts were maxed out and the depth of field was also pushed to its limits. Add the one hour wait for the sun to get to the right position and that maxed out my patience but it was worth it.
If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all. - - Michelangelo Buonarroti
Broken Windows create strong graphic shapes and may be called urban blight, but I think they can also be visual poetry for the mind.
The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them. - Paulo Coelho
I cannot claim originality for this photograph, the original inspiration came from Rod Dresser who photographed these steps in 1982. It was such a simple but powerful composition that stayed always in my memory.
I did not want to copy Rod’s photograph but wanted to make a version that would represent my feelings. Rod Passed away in November 2011 and never saw this photograph, I hope he would have liked my version.
Old dirty windows are always a common photographic theme for photographers and I am not immune to that draw. With this large gear, the eye is pulled straight into the photograph and you are left wondering what was going on here in years past.
My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea. - Edward Weston
I think there are times when knowing what the subject of a photograph is can actually diminish the viewing experience. I would prefer not to reveal the subject and keep the mystery.
I always feel the desire to look for the extraordinary in ordinary things; to suggest, not to impose, to leave always a slight touch of mystery in my paintings. (Balthus)
When I came across this scene I had the feeling of a grade school classroom, the cardboard laying on the pots looked like a school desk. I have had one other person tell me that the photograph reminds them of being in school. It’s more than just cardboard laying on pots.
This then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock. - Edward Weston
I was on my way to Z pies in Placerville when I passed a group of iron shutters. Each shutter that I passed was calling out to me, "Take My Picture", but this shutter won out. I ran back to the car grabbed my camera and by the time I got back the shadow was in the perfect position.
"Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter." Ansel Adams
A Chevy Impala abandoned, stripped, covered in graffiti and a few bullet holes. I liked the M.
"If by chance someone is looking at some picture that seems to be a ‘found photograph,’ it makes no difference that he understand what I was trying to do, because I was not trying to do anything.” - Minor White
I am glad that someone didn’t write on this window “wash me”; they would have ruined the ‘elegant gorp’.
“The taint of age can be very beautiful. The wreckage of man-made objects is something more beautiful than the new. Rust and weathering adds a patina of . . . well, I call it 'elegant gorp'.” - Brett Weston
The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said, without even looking round. – Queen of Hearts
Simple is always better.
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better. -- Andre Gide
The "Chew Kee" is a Chinese rammed earth structure established as an herb shop during the Gold Rush. "Chew Kee" remains largely intact as one of only four remnants of the once thriving Chinese community in Fiddletown, CA.
The shutters and the wire in the window made such a bold graphic statement in my minds eye, but getting it in the print was difficult. I worked on this image off and on for two years.
Happiness . . . it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. -- Vincent van Gogh
Most of the time images just pop up in front of me when I least expect it.
Somebody once asked Anton Bruckner: "Master, How, when, where did you think of the divine motif of your Ninth Symphony?" Well, it was like this," Bruckner replied. "I walked up the Kahlenberg, and when it got hot and I got hungry, I sat down by a little brook and unpacked my Swiss cheese. And just as I open the greasy paper, that darn tune pops into my head!" - Anton Bruckner