Photography is seeing deeply into the nature of things as you explore small corners of the universe in Daydreaming on the Porch

Photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.  I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of one’s self is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us which can mold us, but which can also be affected by us.  A balance must be established between these two worlds — the one inside us and the one outside us.  As result of a constant reciprocal process, both these worlds come to form a single one.  And it is this world that we must communicate.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, 20th century photographer

Photography is 90 percent seeing and 10 percent photographing…

John Fielder, nature photographer

I may not have been able to make photography my life’s work and profession, but it has been my lifelong passion,  more so now than ever since I have been taking pictures digitally since 2008. Before that it was all film for decades, the old-fashioned way.

I believe I am a kindred spirit with many of the street, Nature and documentary photographers I have studied and admired for years. I have felt this way about a number of photographers over the years.  

Although I concentrate on Nature, I am interested in many other types of photography. All the different schools and branches of photography are not that different, in my view, in terms of how I go about making pictures of a wide variety of subjects, and how I increasingly look for the abstract designs, fractals and patterns in both Nature and man-made objects. Also, I carefully note signs, abandoned or incongruously placed objects, and the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated elements in a photo composition.

This illustrates, in part, the way in which I “see” the world, and by this I mean using the camera as an extension of the eye and all its visual powers combined with intuition, deep feeling, emotion, and reverence for Nature.   I am happiest when I am photographing the physical world all around me, every day, and of never tiring of this pursuit and avocation.   Each picture I take is an event that has great significance, for it becomes, in my captured image, something as nearly permanent as anything I can know or create.   And, as Cartier-Bresson said, I discover more about myself, and re-affirm my core values and feelings as I perpetually discover the world around me through photography.   In one way or another, this has been going on all my life, at least since my early 20s.

I have been producing a series of photo books called “Photographic Visions,” in which I select seemingly random groups of 30 or more photographs to permanently endure in book form rather than only them store them digitally in the Cloud or on my phone. Looking through a book of my pictures gives me a sense of happiness that is considerably greater than scrolling through them on my phone. I guess I’m still old-fashioned in that way, and with the Internet self-publishing is possible for anyone.

Here is a set of pictures that will go into my next book. I don’t sell or market these books, but rather produce them for myself and to give away to friends and family. That suffices for now.

Photographic Visions

https://www.flickr.com/gp/camas/4z42mD990Q

Last updated June 16, 2023