Getting It Done in Postcards 4

Creating thirty black and white images to share with you was an interesting project. I had no doubt that I could do this technically. I had many thousands of saved pictures in my files to work with, and I had helped put my first husband through photography classes at Art Center LA. What complicated matters was that I changed the subject from “any photograph” to “people photographs” just as I began. Compounding this, my memory is faulty, and many of my old friends have died.

Many of the photographs, like the long view above of Katy and I near the Point Arena Lighthouse, were ones that I did not take. Only after I spent a lot of time making this image work in black and white did it dawned on me that I did not take it. Gee, how slow can I get. There I am in the picture that I did not take and cannot use.

Other shots had far more impact unchanged. That last image of two powerful writers, Marion and Loretta, keeps far more of its emotional depth if left uncropped. Each photograph also had a story behind it that I didn’t always feel comfortable in telling. Loretta died shortly after I took this portrait this photo, and Marion died the next year. In that top shot on this page, Katy and I couldn’t walk well at all. Our husbands had ranged far ahead of us, and we elected to sit for a moment or two and talk.

I discovered this ongoing, 30 day project on Facebook through Stefan Danielski: and the photographs he takes on the Algolake. The power of his pieces moved me to try this. Thank you all who helped me with this project.