As Victorian novelist George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans who died in 1880) purportedly wrote,
“It is never too late to be what you might have been”.
Ten years ago after a long hiatus, I wanted to return to analog/film photography and bought a medium format camera from the widow of a Fire Fighter. Her husband worked 35 years as a Fire Firefighter with distinction and retired with the intent of fulfilling his dream of becoming a photographer. He retired, bought his camera, an array of accessories and then died of cancer shortly thereafter. He never “became what he might have been”! This tragedy has long been on my mind.
In a bit of serendipity, I subsequently watched an Oscar nominated documentary film called “Finding Vivian Maier”. Vivian was an extremely gifted street photographer who was phenomenally good and prolific in her body of work, however she was an odd personality and recluse who lived, worked and sadly died in anonymity. Her engaging, voluminous work was discovered by happenstance, long after her death and has finally received the international praise and acclaim it deserved. It was a reckoning point for me and changed the trajectory of what to do with my work.
My website is about me doing something I’ve thought about for a long time - “putting my work out there”. My intent is slathered with a layer of hubris, a big dash of vanity and a denominator of doubt. None of these human frailties has dissuaded me from celebrating my photography, if only for myself. It is, as well, a homage to photography and the Great Photographers who have come before and inspired me.
Ever so many years ago, a graduate of the Berlin Art Institute and Director of a local Arts Center where I lived in Germany, exclaimed that he liked my eye for a good image. I borrowed a medium format camera, took my 1st serious images and my Art Director acquaintance helped me develop some of my first films and prints. In an early darkroom instructional session, his eyes widened and he smiled broadly as my image of a 18 inch tall industrial sand pile (at right) began to appear in the development tray. He exclaimed "Ach du Liebe Zeit!", which is a way of expressing wonderment in German! Subsequently, one of my color images was featured in a travel-life periodical. My photographic muse and keen interest in photography took hold. However, as the weight and priorities of life developed, I only made snapshots of my family and pursued an above average means to care for them. My muse was in suspended animation for many years. It returned as my family left the nest and I began to resolve other life challenges.
As you view my images, I hope my photographic raison d'etre resonates with you. I need to point out I am a photographer, not an artist. I’m particularly fond of abstract works, but I’m not exclusive to that genre and capture interesting images when my mind/eye connection prods me into the visual fugue of composition. The quotes below are from photographers whose thoughts appeal to my sense of “Yes, this is True & Works for Me”.
When people look at my pictures, I want them to feel the way they do
when they want to read a line of a poem twice.
- Robert Frank
To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting
in an ordinary place…I’ve found it has little to do with
the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.
- Elliott Erwitt
If you are still reading, thanks for your interest in my photography and staying with me. Feel free to contact me if you have an interest in discussing or owning prints of my work.
Cheers!
Dave