19-APR-2004
Walkers, Tecate, Mexico, 2004
I always use my spot meter when shooting in strongly contrasting light. Here, I exposed the picture for the marble floor surrounding a bandstand in the center of Tecate's Hidalgo Plaza. This exposure retains color and detail in the marble while abstracting everything else in the picture. Using a 24mm wideangle converter lens, which offers very deep focusing, I shot from the bandstand as two people walked into my picture. The rhythmic pattern of the bandstand railing and the shadow of the bandstand’s circular roof create a curving path to propel these pedestrians through my frame. The degree of abstraction makes this picture work. Because one of these people is in silhouette and the other walks with his head down, they become abstractions symbolizing the ebb and flow of the pedestrian traffic that walks through this Plaza by and day and night.
15-APR-2004
Old Synagogue, Heritage Park, San Diego, California, 2004
I did not want to merely describe the interior of the historic structure that once housed San Diego’s first synagogue, because the room itself is now basically a barren hall filled with empty benches. It has been moved to its present site in a San Diego park for display an example of Victorian architecture. My goal was to suggest its former function as an actual house of worship, and abstraction was my tool. I used my spot meter on the light source itself – the frosted pane of a large window. Only this pane, and the warmly glowing light on the wall, wooden paneling, as well as the back of a bench, remains visible. Everything else goes black, creating room for the imagination of the viewer to enter and fill in the details.
27-DEC-2003
Humberstone Ghost Town, Iquique, Chile, 2003
I was standing in the darkness of a primitive room once occupied by a Chilean nitrate miner, a place abandoned to the dust-laden winds of the Atacama Desert for more than 40 years. Its wooden walls are covered with graffiti, and there is not much left that speaks of either the man or the miner. What photographic approach might work here? I solved the problem by using abstraction to make an image that asks questions of the viewer, instead of providing answers. Using my spot meter, I expose for the brilliantly illuminated dirt floor at the base of the old wooden door. Everything in the shadows becomes dark, the graffiti disappears, and the image is reduced to a series of geometric shapes. Light seeps through the slats of the wooden wall, and a warming sun drenches the doorway and the worn paint on the old wooden door. These elements create a relationship in light and space that asks us to wonder about those who once lived within this small space. The image leaves much to our imaginations, one of the purposes of photographic abstraction.
29-DEC-2003
Neruda, La Sebastiana, Valparaiso, Chile, 2003
Although I was not allowed to photographically search for the spirit of Chile’s Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda inside of his incredible La Sebastiana home, I was free to search for it outside the house. A curving bench made out of copper overlooks the home's lush gardens. At one end of the bench, Neruda himself still sits, only as a copper silhouette. I shot the silhouette in shadow, making his presence almost palpable. What makes this picture work is the illusion created by abstraction. At first glance, we can’t tell if we are looking at person or not. A closer look tells us it’s not -- a very thin trail of light on the back of the neck and shoulder gives the game away. It is the interplay between illusion and reality that makes this image resonate.
19-DEC-2003
Gates, Pedro Miguel Locks, Panama Canal, 2003
Massive is the best word to define the Panama Canal – everything about this incredible engineering project is big. I used abstraction and scale incongruity here to tell the story of its size. I was shooting from the front of a cruise ship about to leave the Pedro Miguel Locks, the second set of locks that made it possible for us to sail through the heart of Panama from the Caribbean Sea into the Pacific Ocean. I noticed a man standing on top of the gate, an incongruously tiny figure compared to the huge gate beneath his feet. I used my spot meter to expose for the water beyond the gate, which abstracted both the man and the gate. I then waited for the gate to open, and shot just as soon as I saw a sliver of water appear between them. This vertical band of light rhythmically repeats the vertical posture of both the man and the post at upper left. The image is almost monochromatic – the only color is a hit of brown in the water and the yellow rails of the walkway on top of the gates. How massive are the workings of the Panama Canal? This picture may provide an answer.
01-DEC-2002
Flute player, Madagascar, 2002
I used backlighting to conceal identity, allowing you to fill in the details for yourself.
Taking a break, Moscow, 2003
A street performer hides behind his bejeweled hands near Moscow's Red Square. By hiding his face, I try to make his hands speak for him.
21-FEB-2000
Woman to Market, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 2001
I waited to shoot until this woman reached those long shadows flowing along the street. She seemed to be suspended in space, her emotions and identity concealed by the backlighting.
29-JUL-2003
Fog lifts on Svir, Russia, 2003
A gradually lifting fog withholds the details of this Russian farm along the Svir River.
24-NOV-2002
Karen Blixen's desk, Nairobi, Kenya, 2002
Karen Blixen, author of "Out of Africa" once worked at this desk. By abstracting detail through backlighting, I symbolize the tools of her craft, instead of describing them.
23-FEB-2000
The Forbidden City, Hue, Vietnam, 2000
By photographing one of the pagodas of Hue's Forbidden City through a slat screened window, I wanted to create the effect of a barrier, symbolizing the theme of this historical compound.
17-MAR-2003
Face on the Caboose, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2003
As part of a project for a class in digital photography at The Santa Fe Workshops, we were taken to a railroad yard littered with abandoned and obsolete trains. I thought this mysterious face stenciled on an old caboose best captured the mood of the place. I abstracted the caboose by taking out as much of its structure as I could, leaving only a suggestion of its metallic side, and the shadow of a control wheel.
