12-MAY-2010
Firemen, City Hall, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2010
I use three forms of abstraction here to activate the imagination of my viewers – the two firemen, arriving at City Hall for a meeting, are obscured by both backlighting and my vantage point, while the building itself is reduced to just a doorway and a small patio. Other firemen had arrived before them, so I had ample time to compose the shot. I wanted to catch the men side by side, yet keep them from overlapping either each other. I wanted them contained by the geometry of the diagonal shadows that will soon envelope them in darkness. The white negative space that crackles between the men, as well as between them and the shadows that surround them, creates tension that defines this abstracted moment in light, time, and space.
14-NOV-2009
Monument Valley, Arizona, 2009
The silhouetted monoliths of Monument Valley, the vast Navajo park straddling the Arizona-Utah border, rise before us from a desert landscape. I abstract this image by shooting into the sun, creating the silhouette and turning the highway before us into a silvery ribbon of concrete. The stark design of this image demands black and white rendering. By removing the greenish brown color of the desert and replacing it with deep grays and blacks, the geometry of the road and the shapes of the monoliths work seamlessly together to signify the vastness of the space before us. The truck poised to enter the curve at the bottom of the frame anchors the image, adding a touch of scale incongruity in the process.
02-JUN-2009
Entrance lobby, State Capitol, Austin, Texas, 2009
By exposing for the light flowing through its 19th century etched glass windows, I turn the Capitol’s lobby into a realm of moody darkness, reducing visibility to an abstraction, more a scene from a dream than from life. Three silhouetted figures are frozen in place, two of them Texas Capitol Policemen wearing their Stetsons. One is clearly silhouetted against the glass, while another can be dimly seen standing next to the door at right. The light grazes the edge of the pillars that line the entrance lobby, drawing the eye to the third figure at left, a dimly seen visitor who has just arrived. I thought about converting this abstract scene into a black and white image, but I like how the yellow art deco lamps in the upper center of the image add a touch of reality to an otherwise abstracted image.
08-APR-2009
Fragment, USS Arizona, State Capitol Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, 2009
The battleship USS Arizona was destroyed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, with the loss of 1,177 lives. The sunken ship is now a memorial to those still entombed within its hull. A rusted fragment of the ship is part of the exhibit “Flagship of the Fleet: Life and Death of the USS Arizona” at the Arizona State Capitol Museum. Using my camera’s spot meter, I exposed on the bright spot created by an overhead light, abstracting the huge sheet of rusty metal, and allowing it to fall into shadow – suggesting loss and eternal silence. A column of golden rust emerges from those shadows, as if it were a glowing memorial torch.
22-OCT-2008
Agave, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2008
This abstract interpretation of an Agave plant features its sun-struck distinctive yellow edges, lined with razor sharp teeth. By showing less of the plant itself, I am able to stress the teeth, which nature has provided as a survival mechanism. If we look at the teeth as teeth, the plant appears dangerous to the touch, as intended. However if we alter our perception to concentrate instead on the opposing dark spaces between the teeth, we see a dark green plant with rounded ridges against a bright yellow background. The beauty of abstract imaging is that we can prod the imaginations of our viewers into seeing our images however they may wish to see and understand them.
17-MAY-2008
Spring Thaw, Lake Tahoe, California, 2008
The roads that surround 6,000-foot high Lake Tahoe are wet with melting snow in mid-May. I move in with a 28mm wideangle lens on a puddle, and shoot towards the morning sun to abstract its surface with backlight. The wet street reflects the light back towards us. The light defines the texture of the wet street, creating a surface that is vividly tactile. By converting the color image to black and white, I make the image’s abstract qualities become even more intense.
29-APR-2008
Curves, Old State Capitol, Phoenix, Arizona, 2008
The interior of the copper-clad dome capping the building that served as Arizona’s territorial and state capitol from 1898 to 1974 makes a spectacular abstraction when photographed in part, rather than as a whole. The massive curves and diagonals create energy and tension within my square frame – an abstract expression of architecture, design, engineering and geometry working together in aesthetic harmony.
04-APR-2008
Walking the net, Cochin, India, 2008
A single fisherman and a lone crow share a moment on the huge fishing nets that provide food for many in Cochin. I abstract the man, the framework for the massive fishing nets, and even the crow by backlighting them. Downtown Cochin fades softly into the background. By removing most detail, I stress the scale incongruity – the small man on the large apparatus.
28-MAR-2008
Village pump, Khajuraho, India, 2008
By pressing my shutter button just as the shawl of her sari covered her face, I was able to make one woman into thousands. Although it is the 21st Century, rural Indians still must draw water from the village pump. Central plumbing not generally exist outside of the urban areas. This is a fact of life – every day starts at the pump, where water is obtained for household purposes. Abstracting this woman changes her into a symbolic figure. She becomes all who, day after day and year after year, must go to the water instead of letting the water come to them.
19-DEC-2007
Downpour, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2007
I made this image from the front seat of a tourist bus during a rainsquall. Our bus was parked at a curb outside of our hotel when the rain hit. My auto-focus camera focused on the window because it was covered with rain. Normally, it would have focused on the closest subject beyond the window. This caused the man standing in front of the bus with his bicycle to become a soft abstraction. Yet the image is abstracted two more times. My vantage point is behind the man, making him unidentifiable. He becomes everyman, a symbol of the stoic Hanoi residents who have over the years endured French colonial rule, American bombing raids, and eternally bad weather. Ultimately, the sharply focused rain itself becomes the subject of this picture, further obscuring the man. The rivulets and drops of water create an abstract pattern of their own, creating a matrix of symbolic sadness.
17-DEC-2007
The brooms cometh, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2007
This woman sells brooms from a bicycle in Hanoi. Because she spends her entire day riding the polluted streets of the city, she has masked almost her entire face and wears her conical hat low over her eyes. The combination of mask and hat abstract her face – she is unidentifiable. My vantage point incongruously blankets her in a sea of colorful feathers and straw – abstracting her once again, and making her into more of an apparition than a tradesperson.
28-DEC-2007
The Last Emperor, Dalat, Vietnam, 2007
The last Emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, ruled between 1926 and 1945. Coaxed back to the throne as a French puppet, Bao Dai devoted his time to hunting tigers and women and lived with his queen and concubines in a luxurious summer palace in Dalat. This palace remains as he left it, and among its relics is an faded map of Vietnam made from golden silk, which he received as a gift from France. It is framed under glass in the palace dining room, and I photographed it as an abstract symbol of Bao Dai’s rule. I leave as much to the imagination as I show. A shadowy figure roams through the reflected background – perhaps the ghost of an emperor, a prince or a queen. Incongruously, the most prominent detail shows people at hard labor.