04-JUN-2010
Pedicab, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2010
This man transports tourists around Santa Fe by foot power. This image illuminates the challenge of his task. At the moment his pedicab is empty, and there seems to be no one on the early morning streets. I capture him in silhouette, wearing a straw hat to shield his face from the summer sun. The sun bathes the adobe structure behind him, a local hotel, in golden light. He rides off into the shadows to find his customers.
02-JUN-2010
Breather, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2010
I found this man unloading heavy material from a truck parked on the streets of Santa Fe. It is evening, and I have the feeling that he had been working for hours in the hot sun. He grasps his bright red cart, wearing heavy, well-used gloves on his hands. As he stepped back beneath an arcade for a breather, I made this portrait of him. I exposed for his white shirt, causing his face to fall into the cool shadows, making him anonymous, and symbolic of all who earn a livelihood as laborers.
04-JUN-2010
To work, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2010
As the sun rises, this neighborhood stirs to the tread of maintenance crews on their way to work. I caught this abstracted ladder bearer as he walks among the early morning shadows. The slats in the ladder rhythmically echo the slats in the decorative window treatment behind him.
07-JUN-2010
Maintenance man, Durango and Silverton Railroad, Durango, Colorado, 2010
As the sun sets over Durango, this maintenance man is still on the job in the yards of the Durango and Silverton railroad. I photographed him at this time of day because the play of light and shadow is at its strongest. The setting sun illuminates his figure as he stands near the door of the maintenance and supplies coach, throwing a dramatic shadow on its red wall. The shadow contrasts to his relaxed body language. It leans forward, implying anxiety. The coach itself seems to have been in service for a long time, and looks like it could do with a bit of maintenance itself.
07-JUN-2010
Locomotive at rest, Durango and Silverton Railroad, Durango, Colorado, 2010
This railroad hauls tourists between Durango and Silverton every day. Its steam locomotives are historic pieces of equipment and usually live in this barn. Its multiple doors swing open to welcome the well-used locomotives come evening. I made this image by shooting through an open window in the back of the barn, and caught this locomotive, its copper fittings gleaming in the dusk, at rest.
28-MAY-2010
Atomic Power Plant, Atomic City, Idaho, 2010
The world’s first peacetime use of nuclear power occurred when the US government switched on an experimental reactor near Arco, Idaho in 1951. Arco became the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power four years later. I spent a few hours touring the plant housing this reactor. I deliberately underexposed this image, abstracting some of the piping in the plant as a mysterious and haunted reminder of this event. By showing less, I’ve tried to say more.
12-MAY-2010
Laborer, Scottsdale Civic Plaza, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2010
This man is spending hours creating piles of dirt as he works on a turf renovation project in this city park. I backlight him, turning him into a silhouetted abstraction. There were at least a dozen workers doing similar things, and I make him symbolically represent all of their labors. By using my camera’s multiple frame “burst” mode, I was able to shoot twenty or thirty pictures of him within a minute or so, and caught him at the moment his thrusting shovel hangs poised above the dirt, and the lean of his legs rhythmically repeat the lean of the shadows on the wall at far right. The long shadows imply the symbolic presence of a sundial that marks the hours of work that has been done and has yet to be done. That symbolic sundial marks the end of the four level wall behind him, preceded by four repeating bushes.The wall carries the horizontal flow of action across the entire frame.
12-MAY-2010
Gardener, Scottsdale Civic Plaza, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2010
This gardener is lost in his work, engulfed by the foliage that creates his livelihood. I abstract the image by waiting for him to lower his head as he prunes a plant. His hat, the focal point of the image, covers his face and makes this image a symbol of work itself, rather than a portrait of a particular worker. He wears white work gloves that are thrust into deep shadow, yet still softly glow in the reflected light of his venue.
15-OCT-2009
Restaurant worker, Istanbul, Turkey, 2009
I saw this woman at work in the window of a restaurant, preparing some kind of local favorite. I made several images of her at work, but much preferred the thoughtfulness reflected in this photograph. She has just moved a slice on to the black tray – her hand is still in motion. The other hand is completely relaxed. Head covered, and wearing a company jacket, she appears to very far away at the moment. The last slice is out of sight and out of mind.
18-OCT-2009
Steam table, Kiev, Ukraine, 2009
A Ukrainian cafeteria worker, surrounded by hot lights and clouds of steam, is caught in a moment of decision. A crowd of customers waits just beyond my frame for their food and she is the person who must deliver it, and deliver it now. The image is all about pressure in the workplace, and how people respond under that pressure.
23-OCT-2009
It’s a wrap, Bucharest, Romania, 2009
Three construction workers are dwarfed by an enormous drape that describes the ornamental structure it is hiding. Bucharest is restoring many of its 19th and early 20th century buildings and this is one of them. This image is rich in incongruity – the drape is so much larger than the workers who stand below it, and the way it is folded back is almost a visual pun.
14-OCT-2009
Pigeon feed, Istanbul, Turkey, 2009
I used an 18mm wideangle focal length to stretch the frame, embracing a multitude of pigeons that make Istanbul’s New Mosque their home. The man in the middle of it all sells pigeon feed to any one who might want to keep them happy. The image is bizarrely incongruous – seldom is one man seen surrounded by so many birds. He seems totally oblivious to his attraction. The wideangle lens has distorted his chair so that it seems to lean crazily, an effect that only increases the bizarre nature of this image.
(After posting this image, my friend Tim May, who was standing next to me while I made this photograph, tells me that this man is blind. This additional context brings a new dimension of meaning to this image -- he can't see either the birds or his customers, so he must use his other senses, particularly his hearing, to sense what is happening around him.)