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About the photos My intent is to take an ordinary view of specific but possibly anonymous site and expose a hidden composition within it.
Fundamentally, this is a matter of framing, which for me is the principle contribution of the photograph. Composition is not possible with eyesight alone but requires a frame. I hope to make the composition formally obvious, possibly to the point of absurdity.
To unveil the composition I often use a very long lens in order to bring shapes up against each other more tightly --an effect I call automatic montage. I find that very early morning light also emphasizes composition by making the lines more definite and by providing more angular shadows.
If the site is sufficiently banal and the composition sufficiently elegant, then the photograph may be very ironic.
To place the site in its situation I attempt to make explicit the color of the ambient light, the angle of viewing, and the quality of diffusion of the light. These are all characteristics for which every viewer quickly compensates when looking at a scene in person. We involuntarily calculate adjustments for these characteristics so that we can estimate the objective color and shape of objects —a practical goal.
In situ one’s vision then quickly and inevitably becomes jaded as these adjustments occur. The light and point of view of the situation as we originally encountered it are pushed aside as we work to interpret it so that we can deal with things practically. Much of the situation essentially disappears. With a photograph there is an opportunity to capture the situation as first encountered and then to hold it there more or less indefinitely —less practical but potentially very entertaining.
The particular temperature of light at transition, the beginning or end of the day, is especially fleeting. It evokes not only a specific time but also the moment of reflection in solitude that often accompanies the awareness of this time. Photographs can hold and then multiply these moments.
About the places Locations of most of the pictures in the gallery are self-explanatory. A couple exceptions. . .
Hartford City is Hartford City, Indiana, where I grew up.
Karakoy is a village in Turkey, which was essentially abandoned as a result of the 1923 population exchange, a scheme whereby Turks in Greece and Greeks in Turkey were to be exchanged back to their ‘correct’ homeland. (This became known in Greece as the Asia Minor Catastrophe.) A wonderful and terrifying account of this event is Louis de Bernieres’ novel, Birds without Wings.
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