Photo Walk '09

I've been busy this week going through the images I captured last Saturday for the Annual Worldwide Photo Walk. When I heard about this event I knew I wanted to be part of it; the idea of thousands of photographers all over the world hitting the streets at (roughly) the same time, zooming, clicking, capturing whatever was there, whatever presented itself. My group met in downtown Tacoma. It felt like a treasure hunt as everyone headed out in search of his or her own pictorial prize; an image, or maybe more than one, that always seems to be out there, just waiting for you to claim it with your unique perspective. The weather was clear and hot. There were beautiful, stark shadows everywhere which I love for their strong, graphic lines. In this photo of two red umbrellas I used the shadows to counter the bright, vivid color and my lens baby to blur the edges.

Breathe

Breathe
Breathe
as the ocean breathes.

Follow the rolling

swells and notice,

the clattering of pebbles
of your chattering mind.

like fragments of torn hearts

mended smooth as

an oceanic prism;
a heart-mind of changing

shapes and colors.

 

Barbed-Wire Spiral

I got a link on Facebook recently from my cousin, a piece from a literary online art gallery on improvisational surrealism. Featured there was the work and ideas of Rodney Tuttle who says, "Grab a camera and walk out into the world; treat the world like a gigantic surrealistic sculpture and capture some surreal images." 

I love to do this.  This image of some tangled up barbed-wire draped across a chain link fence is an odd juxtaposition, my take on the "sculpturally surreal", and I like the improvisational feel of it.  I watched as many people walked right by without seeming to notice it, how out of place and strange it seemed there on a pedestrian walkway.  

Kristin

This photo was taken on a retreat to a lodge in eastern Washington with a large group of women. It was a girls' getaway weekend experience, complete with a mountain view, hot tub and a full service bar. There was sunshine by day and a chill in the air at night; there were stories to be told and bare feet to toast by the fire. There were peals of laughter, long walks and time alone to explore with my camera. This shot of Kristin was special to me. We were curious about the whereabouts of a wedding party we had seen posing for pictures on the lawn and went out in search of it; me the paparazzi and Kristin the hopeful wedding crasher. We only found a few hikers and a pavillion full of empty white chairs. I was playing with my lens baby that weekend and I had her sit down on a randow chair. The light was perfect. It works as a portrait of Kristin because there is genuine warmth and strength in it. She went looking for a throng of people and found herself, instead, swallowed up by a sea of empty chairs. She seemed to embrace the humor in the situation and appeared completely at ease. There is a subtle impression the photo leaves me with, something about her gaze in the direction of the setting sun that is both vulnerable and optimistic.

Offerings for The Buddha

This first full moon of May is in the Buddhist tradition the anniversary of the Buddha's birth, his enlightenment and his passing from this world.

I offer this photograph to commemorate his birthday, and thank him for his many jewels of wisdom.

Here is one that I have found to be especially useful:

Do not pursue the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. The past no longer is, and the future has not yet come. Look deeply at life, just as it is arising in the very here and now. Recognize it--invincible, unshakable. Care for it with your heart and mind. The Buddha

Musings of an Urban Angel

Urban Angel-Mexico City

The stillness at dawn

ruptures all dreams

Three Wet Kids

I was going through some old things recently and came across this photograph, Three Wet Kids. I think it was taken in '88 or '89 while living in Michigan, just before moving to Switzerland. These children were on their own and spoke little English. It's out of focus and harshly lit, but I like it.

I read an article on one of my favorite Photographers, Richard Avedon, where Avedon describes a photograph he made while on vacation in Sicily... "Technically amateurish, an almost unprintable negative, but from the moment I took it I had some inarticulate sense that the image mattered to me. There was something autobiographical about it- in that boy, his smile, his overeagerness, and his shoulders thrown back so violently and vulnerably." That's how I felt with these three kids, turning their gaze briefly, curiously, toward me before running back down the beach. It was a fleeting encounter but has endured in my memory and still speaks to me of strength and vulnerability.

I have learned to pay attention to images that matter to me, to acknowledge they are important without knowing why.