diptych # 105 civilized ku # 2815-16 ~ the joy of photography

rocking chairs ~ Essex, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
random everyday encounters ~ near Essex, NY / Au Sable Forks, NY - both in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Some people are still unaware that reality contains unparalleled beauties. The fantastic and unexpected, the ever-changing and renewing is nowhere so exemplified as in real life itself. ~ Berenice Abbott

While it can be stated with absolute certainy that my picturing making M.O. revolves around the reality of everyday life, it should be noted that it also defies the common picture making wisdom of finding a vision driven by a specific thing (or things), a referent, which is of particular interest / that which one cares about.

Most often, that authoritative counsel, re: a thing(s), is understood to mean actual tangible things, i.e. people, places, or physical objects, whereas my picture making is driven by an intangible thing - a deep and abiding connection to the concept of the reality of everyday life. Of course, that connection leads me to make pictures of actual everyday things - encounters with real people, places, or objects. However, it is only in rare cases that I truly care about or have a particular interest in those individual people, places, or things.

What I care about most in my picturing making, what drives me to make pictures, is, quite simply, the act of making pictures.

That written, it is true that I have many disparate thematic bodies of work - see my PICTURES ONLY GALLERY LINKS at the top of my blog homepage. However, those bodies of work grew out of my everyday picturing when I realized that, unintentionally, I had thematic work "hidden" within my vast library of pictures (see my most recent "discovery"). It was only when I recognized those thematic connections / patterns that I edited them into separate bodies of work and began, intentionally, to be aware of picturing opportunities that allowed me to add to those separate bodies of work.

However, despite that awareness of thematic picturing opportunities, I rarely venture forth with the conscious intention of making pictures which expand on those bodies of work. That is to write, I venture forth, quite simply, knowing that I will, most often, make pictures of some thing or another and that in so doing I will make some pictures which I will be able to use to expand various individual bodies of work.

Consequently, it is fair to write that my bodies of work grow organically from my primary interest in the medium and its apparatus - my love of just making pictures.

FYI, it is somewhat ironic that, early in my commercial photography career, I was assigned to make a number of contributions to several of Eastman Kodak's Joy of Photography book series. While my contributions to those books were of the how-to / tools-&-techniques variety, it wasn't until later in my picture making life that I came to know the true joy of making pictures.