Many thanks to Brian Trompeter of the Great Falls Gazette for this generous write-up about my Paris show, now in its second week at the Great Falls Library.
I have truly been touched by the interest, and I'm happy to say the most popular item has been a poring of an unusual perspective of the Eiffel Tower.
Framed prints are available for all the pieces in the show. If you're interested, email me.
Cole Porter wrote about it. Frank Sinatra crooned about it, and I’ve photographed it: Paris.
A collection of 17 images from my most recent visit to the City of Light is now on exhibition at the library in Great Falls, Va.
A special feature is a series of street portraits, seven Parisians in the fifth arrondissement. They are walking among the cafés along the Place de la Contrescarpe, famed for the artists and writers who once chose them as haunts. They are people with confidence, style, and strength. I like street photography. It forces me to get out from behind the viewfinder and engage with people.
The free exhibition, along with a showing of nature photography by Dee Leggett, continues through the month of May at the Library.
Click here for a sample of the exhibition.
"I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed."
That's Garry Winogrand, a New Yorker whose street photography in the '60s was so good that it's on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington right now, traveling to New York in May.
The takeaway from the show, and a 20-minute filmed interview, is that there are no rules. A good picture is what he thinks it is. He's always shooting. Technique, he doesn't know from. You might think he's tilted the camera. He'll say maybe he sees vertical differently than you.
"Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame," he said. "When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts."
Here are some more Garry-isms. As Stan Freberg warned about a collection of his '50s radio show skits, don't take them all in at once. It's rich stuff, that will stick with you.
Jay Maisel would be proud!
Went out for a Sunday drive. Donna driving, I'm just banging away seeing what blurry effects I might get along the side of the road, when I got the shot.
Didn't plan on it. Wasn't even 'trying' it.
Bang! It just showed up - and I knew ... it was a picture.
It was something I'd never seen before. Jay Maisel would be proud.)
The cemetery is in Great Falls, Va. I drive past it several times a week.
A few years ago I noticed that one of the plots, closest to the road, was being attended to. There were fresh flowers occasionally, and around holidays, special decorations or children's toys would mark the gravesite.
I thought about trying to photograph the site from the same spot, monthly, to get a sense of the seasons and the obvious love there was for Brittney Rae Ellis.
I tried a few shots. I wasn’t happy with the results. The headstone is in such a position that the sun frequently washes out the detail or blinds the camera. My “time lapse” idea has fallen to the side.
A week ago, the display at the grave could not be ignored. Brilliant red roses brought color to a black-and-white winter landscape.
You’ll see from the engraving on the headstone that Brittney Rae Ellis passed away 10 years ago. She was 17. "Princess" is cut into the stone and there is also a carving of the words “Best Buddy” and a figure of a German Shepherd. A Web site suggests the dog’s name was Shep.
Sometimes I see a man sitting on a stone bench by the grave site. I have not stopped to approach and tell him how moved I have been by his obvious devotion to, I must assume, his daughter.
Next time I see him, I will.
The annual Chinese New Year's parade in DC is held in what's called the Penn Square area. Thanks to the Center, where the Wizards and Caps play, there's been an influx of retail and restaurants. And the parade went right down the street, drawing the attention of both workers and watchers.
While I took more than a fair share of pictures of parading dragons and paper mache animals, it's images of people on the street that truly attracted me.
“Warm Inside” has been chosen for inclusion in the ninth annual Maine Photography Show. I am incredibly honored. This is the fourth consecutive year one of my images as been selected by the Juror.
This year’s judge, Freeman Patterson, chose the black-and-white image from among 900 entries submitted by 300 photographers for this year’s show.
This image was taken in Venice, during a fall photography workshop led by Peter Turnley.
The famous Venitian aqua alta had flooded St. Mark’s Square, sending visitors scurrying throughout the city in search of drier ground. I found a coffee shop.
“Warm Inside” will be on exhibition April 12 to May 2 at the Boothbay Region Arts Foundation’s gallery in Boothbay, Maine. It will be framed and priced at $225.00.
WASHINGTON, DC- Feb. 2, 2014
The Year of the Horse began with the annual Chinese Lunar New Year's parade through DC's Chinatown district, which is also home to the Verizon Center.
While thousands of red-garbed hockey fans streamed into the Center for a Caps game, outside a few thousand people milled around Sixth and H streets to watch vibrant dragons, lion dancers, marchers, kung fu athletes, and flag-waving paraders.
GREAT FALLS, Va. - Jan. 12.
A week ago, we were in the middle of a six-day siege in the freezer. Temps as low as one degree at National Airport. At our house, outside the District, it was three below zero.
Today, after a dreadful cold-rainy-dreary Saturday, we‘ve got sun. And green shoots in the front yard.
We also have a new grand-niece, in St. Paul, Minn. She arrived this morning, all 9 1/2 pounds.
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