01-SEP-2007
Arcade, Singapore, 2007
Abstraction can often create mystery. It asks questions of the viewer, allowing their imaginations to enter an image and come up with their own answers. This is such an image. We had just finished our shoot in Singapore, but I always have a camera in hand when I travel, just in case an opportunity presented itself. I was standing in an arcade in front of our hotel waiting to leave for Malaysia when I saw a woman carrying an umbrella enter the far end of the arcade and walk towards me. A triangle of light illuminated a wall at the end of the arcade, which complemented the geometric panels and a circle of light on the floor. Tropical plants hang overhead and cast their shadows in the circle on the floor. We have both a tropical and cubistic context for the lady with the umbrella, who is abstracted in mysterious shadow. The umbrella incongruously seems to be protecting her from that that triangle of light. Using my multiple imaging button, I kept firing shots as she walked ever closer. Suddenly a man stepped into the triangle of light at the back of the arcade. Far from spoiling my concept, he enhances it by thrusting out his arm and looking at his watch. His arm and hand leads us to the free arm and hand of woman, and we note the energy crackling in the negative space between that hand and her dress. She comes towards us, while he looks away. Her elbow stops just short of the edge of the triangle, while his hand stops just short of the shadow around it. This scene is charged with such tensions. The mystery woman, swathed in darkness, is frozen forever in mid-passage, as is the gesture of a man she never sees. The rest is left to our imagination. When I lightened this image and removed much of the abstracting shadows, I could see the expression on the woman’s face, note the fabric of her dress, even see polka dots on the inside of the umbrella. Without these deep shadows, the image shows too much and says too little. When I restore the shadows, the image is bathed in mystery. Such is the power of abstraction.
30-AUG-2007
Rainy Day, Singapore, 2007
It rains a lot in Singapore. Ninety-five inches a year. So naturally, we had our share of rain during our two-day shoot there with a group of pbase photographers from three countries. Our delightful host, Ai Li, (
http://www.pbase.com/limaili ) suggested that we wait it out in the city’s library. As it turned out, the rainstorm led to one of my favorite images of the visit, made through that library’s very wet window. I used the raindrops and deeply shadowed landscape to abstract the scene, creating an incongruous contrast. The subject, the city’s new Ferris Wheel (a version of the famous London “Eye”) should symbolize fun, yet the image seems to weep. The image is essentially monochromatic, which is a form of abstraction in itself. The only color is the greenish tint to the sky and the flowing headlights of the cars.
14-SEP-2007
Dilemma, Pingyao, China, 2007
This image represents the dilemma of Pingao itself. It is one of the few cities left on earth enclosed by its original walls. It has been off the tourist track until now, but crowds are growing in this UNESCO World Heritage city. Will Pingyao gradually change itself into a historical theme park for the sake of tourism? Or will it carefully preserve its treasures in a less flashy way in order to ultimately offer a more accurate and more useful vision of its past to its visitors? I try to ask such questions with this image. I abstract one of the city’s famous towers as a silhouette. At first glance it seems to be just another pagoda-like building. Yet by abstracting it in this way, I call attention to the incongruous lights that bristle along the building’s edges. The lights, when illuminated, will create an entirely different Pingyao. A tourist’s city, rather than a cultural treasure. Yet in this image, they are not yet turned on, leaving us to wonder if perhaps there is a better way for Pingyao to offer its history to the world?
08-AUG-2007
In the mind’s eye, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 2007
I was able to abstract this vista of the Grand Canyon by shooting into the misty dawn light, reducing visibility substantially, yet still retaining faint traces of the pinkish color in the textures of the huge mesas and bluffs rising from the canyon floor. I layer the image with a darker foreground that repeats the diagonal slopes that fade into the misty distance. While this image does not allow us to actually see the Grand Canyon itself, it stimulates the imagination to see it in the mind’s eye.
05-JUL-2007
New Wing, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, 2007
Architect Daniel Libeskind’s new addition to Denver’s Art Museum is an abstraction itself. Essentially a pile of geometric forms, it changes its form according to how we approach it. From this angle, the building seems cubistic – particularly after sunset, when most of its beige titanium panels turn blue, while other panels are illuminated in gold.
I worked on this image for some time, changing my vantage point repeatedly until these three forms suddenly “locked” into each other. The image evokes the human values of power, balance, energy, and mystery, all at once. You can see another version of the same concept, made just ten minutes earlier, in my “Buildings” gallery at
http://www.pbase.com/image/82040647.
12-JUN-2007
In the ruins of Alcatraz, San Francisco Bay, California, 2007
Alcatraz, also known as “The Rock,” was a maximum-security federal prison from 1934 to 1963. Today it is part of the Golden Gate Park system, and draws thousands of visitors each day. The purpose of this photograph is to express the mood and meaning of Alcatraz – its sense of isolation, despair, and confinement. I found a brick wall that was laden with the shadows of steel bars, and waited as visitors walked before it. Exposing for the sun lighted bricks, I turned the visitors into abstracted silhouettes. I photographed this particular man just as he enters the frame. His placement on the edge of the image makes him face an even longer row of bars. He becomes an abstract symbol for the thousands of inmates who once passed before this very wall.
08-MAY-2007
Waiting, Phoenix, Arizona, 2007
I have used abstraction in three different ways here to express meaning. This person was sitting in an alcove in the entry hallway of a senior citizens residence. I took my vantage point from off to one side, enabling me to hide more of the person than I show here. We only see legs and feet. Using my spot meter, I exposed for the reflections on the tile floor, which causes those legs and feet to become a silhouette. And I use my frame to remove the upper half of the subject entirely, drawing attention to the body language of the abstracted legs and feet. These three levels of abstraction combine to express the essence of waiting: the passage of time.
20-FEB-2007
Ghost locomotive, Furnace Creek Museum, Death Valley National Park, California, 2007
I made this old locomotive, which once hauled borax out of Death Valley, into a ghostly presence by shooting it from a close-up vantage point using a camera with a 28mm wideangle lens. I photographed from within the shadows created by the locomotive, deliberately catching lens flare from the sun, which was shining straight down. The rainbow of flare, cascading over the top of the locomotive, gives it an otherworldly look, as do the plantings that brush its sides. The key to the image is the degree of abstraction I was able to create. We see only part of the engine – never its shape or setting. We are left with a feeling, rather than a description.
21-FEB-2007
Borax wagon, Harmony Works, Furnace Creek, Death Valley National Park, California, 2007
Borax ore was mined and processed in Death Valley in the 1880s. One of the legendary Twenty-Mule Team Borax Wagons is among the relics on display near the ruins of a processing plant. I photograph only part of the wagon – an old rusted tank, making sure to stress the long shadows of each of its rivets. Because of such abstraction, the image speaks of the strength and endurance of this tank, rather than just showing us what it looks like.
20-FEB-2007
Moonrise, Golden Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California, 2007
A quarter moon seems to be smiling as it rises in the purple evening sky. I wanted to put that incongruous moon into an incongruous context, so I moved my vantage point until a jagged portion of the canyon wall resembling the head of a lion appeared in my frame. I aligned the moon just adjacent to the lion’s mouth – making it seem as if the smiling moon was about to become an evening snack. By underexposing the canyon wall, it becomes an abstraction – a silhouette that can become anything a viewer’s imagination might wish for. Some may see my lion, while others will just see jagged rock. If not food for the lion, this moon should offer at least food for thought.
20-FEB-2007
Sunset in Golden Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California, 2007
I juxtaposed two layers of canyon walls here. One is illuminated by the setting sun. The other is in shadow, and becomes an abstract base for the image. This abstract black shape moves this image from description to expression. It triggers the imagination of my viewers, forcing them to do a double take and consider what they might be looking at here. Nature reveals and nature conceals, and this image does both.
25-DEC-2006
Threat, Marrakesh, Morocco, 2006
The streets in Marrakesh’s medina (walled city) are narrow, and there are many intersections within this labyrinth of ancient lanes. As I was crossing one of these intersections, I saw this motorbike bearing down on me. I instinctively made the shot and jumped out of the way. When I looked at the image, I was stunned to see that the driver had no face or identity. Neither did the man at left who steps to one side to let the cycle move past. My spot meter had read the bright light and darkened the rest of the image accordingly. The image is much more effective as an abstraction than it would be if we could see all of its detail. Both man and bike are far more threatening as mysterious shadows – which force our imaginations into overdrive.