ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHS

Non-Objective/Abstraction (2010-2011)

Early in 2008 I decided to step gingerly into the world of abstraction and non-objective imagery, a very different form of photography from anything I had attempted in the past.  Working very intermittently and over several years, I typically started with entire or portions of existing photographs, manipulated colors and shapes, and added bands and other forms of color available through digital imaging programs.  The result was a collection of 60 images and a radical departure from my customary realism. I later applied these same techniques to a group of “straight” rock studies and landscapes made in nearby Texas Canyon. 

More Postcards from the Strip (2011)

A rare trip to Las Vegas several years ago allowed time to wander the streets and add images to a series initially photographed in 2005, entitled “Postcards from the Strip.”  Vegas  can easily be perceived as an enormous theater with lavish sets, actors coming and going non-stop, and a lavish environment for images of the comic, the odd, the lonely, the absurd, the sad, the exuberant, the elegant, and an endless array of other states.  Spontaneous “hit and run” street photography never had a better friend than Las Vegas.

The Walls of Buenos Aires (2012)

I've been interested for decades in the urban landscape, especially it's peculiarities, ironies and satirical possibilities.  A recent visit to Argentina provided much subject matter, especially in the capital city of Buenos Aires where I saw and photographed a great abundance of graffiti, ranging from crude to artful, personal to political and religious, and sparing neither modern structures nor elegant older buildings in the European style.  Anything standing seemed fair game.  I had no great ambitions for these documentary pictures until the idea of creating collages came to me from a painter friend earlier this year.  I tried and found the process challenging; the outcome was this small group of provocative works.

Digital Noir (2013)

A descendant of much earlier black-and-white work, this series seeks a sense of drama and mystery through liberal use of “negative space” - inky blacks and deep tones.  The subject matter (“positive space”) is typically quite ordinary and sometimes ambiguous; attention to content is channeled by the low-key contrasting voids, and shadows become major elements in the composition.  A number of photographs in this group were pre-visualized with the “noir” style in mind.  Others were originally taken and processed conventionally, then later reworked in the low-key mode.