Thinking together to learn and make sound judgments on behalf of a whole system The Free Dictionary defines dialogue as “An exchange of ideas or opinions on a particular issue, especially with a view to reaching an amicable agreement.” In the image of these spheres, diverse in size, tonality and texture I can imagine the exchange […]
Our backgrounds reveal who we once were and how we got to where we are While writing my novel Soul Train, I wanted to model one of the characters after a dear friend and colleague of twenty years. He’d recently passed away and I realized that the only thing I knew about his personal life, […]
What’s a citizen to believe? With all the buzz about “false” and “fake” news, foreign influence in elections, intelligence leakers, inflammatory talk shows, social media manipulators and AI capabilities, how can we know the truth of anything that’s being reported? We can’t. Given any situation that’s reported, we weren’t present to experience what actually happened. […]
Nothing is what it appears to be In this image I reflect on the notion of “reality,” that it’s both individual and a construct. There’s the reality that I, as the photographer, experienced—the bright sun and the people on the hill. And part of that reality includes cars in a parking lot and an observation […]
Seeing the best in us raises the rest of us and gives us hope There are certain people in the world who bolster our estimation of humanity and contribute hope for the future. By the quality of their character, defined by social theorist Amitai Etzioni as “the psychological muscle that moral conduct requires,” they demonstrate […]
Under stress, we can at least gather our feathers This image of a flamingo illustrates the kind of composure referred to as “equanimity”—steadiness of mind under stress. Calm. His feathers aren’t ruffled. His posture reminds me of the social science phenomenon of “cocooning,” a term coined in the 90’s by trend forecaster Faith Popcorn to describe how […]
The random arrangement of visual elements juxtaposing lights and darks in this image comes near to creating abstraction because the subject matter is easily “read.” Another aesthetic feature here is the number of visual elements, each tonal change representing one of them. The more there are, the more complex the image, so there’s increased potential […]
What we see depends on where we stand In a film script, Point of View (POV) can indicate the camera position or the viewpoint of a character. In a screening of an episode of “24,” the TV series featuring Kiefer Sutherland, the President of the United States and the Vice-president vehemently disagreed on whether or […]
An art style that sheds light on the value of choice In a dream, I walked around an art gallery where all the large black and white photographs were made in “high key”—white subjects on white backgrounds with some grey values but no blacks. Attempting to achieve this with film was challenging because it required […]
There are no “accidents” Look closely. Anyone who has engaged in sustained creative activity, irrespective of medium and expression, has encountered a multitude of “happy accidents,” positive outcomes that occur spontaneously, without intention or planning. Here, a dragonfly happened to be in the frame when I was photographing the sun and clouds. Somewhere in my […]
Contemplative Photography 