By our works we are known Blunt, South Dakota When I photographed these orderly rows of young corn extending to the horizon, I was thinking about the farmer and his work, evidenced by the tractor tracks and the amount of time, money and energy it took to plant this enormous field. Reflecting on the image […]
Drop a pebble in a pool of water and waves ripple out. Drop a word or and idea and these ripple out as well. So also emotions, behaviors and the products of creativity. At some level, given enough time, everything affects everything. And everyone else. This is the entire image that I use for my […]
Principles underlying information in human communication I was thinking about the complexity represented in this image when I noticed that it’s also rich in context, providing both time and space perspectives. The nighttime and elevated point of view displays pattern, while the time-exposure reveals motion. Combined, the image speaks to me of complexity, interaction, order, […]
The primacy of consciousness The relationship between the workers seen here and their towering creation took me to that place of amazement over what and how fast we can build. Prior to these steel structures being set in place, beams that would eventually support the bleacher seats in a football stadium, there were innumerable people […]
From darkness we advance toward the light The metal stairway in this image evokes in me considerations of the evolutionary spiral, the universe’s operating system, which we know to “favor” increased novelty, diversity, adaptation, complexity and order. Along the bottom steps of the oil tank, I see the significant ordering that has already occurred. In […]
Although this weld bead is not a good one from the perspective of a welder, it caught my attention as a potentially abstract image, rich with color, texture and highlights. When I came across the image, the word “joining” came to mind, eliciting some observations for contemplation. Some of the metaphoric implications are obvious, others […]
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 […]
The Japanese way of seeing beauty in entropy We tend to think of entropy as something “bad,” the inevitable tendency for matter to dissipate, for all living things to die. As embodied creatures, we naturally would prefer to avoid this downward spiral—for ourselves, loved ones, pets, creations, cherished objects and the systems we use in […]
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 […]
They apply to everything, not just families This image conjures for me an imagined family, perhaps two or three generations of farmers. The decaying barn speaks of a generation when the field was plowed with horses that, along with feed, seed, tools and machines required a shelter that didn’t require plumbing or heating. And wood was […]
Contemplative Photography 