Work in 2020 has varied from combining two images that have nothing in common to create one to video images with portions obscured by paint brush strokes. The one common element is the uncertain times in which we live
In retrospect, I was exploring many styles as I was honing my photographic skills and refining my eye. My early influences (Walker Evans, Robert Frank and others) are obvious in some of these early images. Ultimately we refine out vision to be our own with those influences lingering in the background of our mature work.
This work is no doubt sentimental in nature to someone of my generation. My intention is to push the limits of representational photography and create a dreamlike mood while also creating an image for viewers to lose themselves in. American culture is filled with images of automobiles, guns and men in hats, all symbols of traditional masculinity during the 1950’s & 1960’s. As a result those images often populate my work and have significant meaning to me.
This is my ongoing exploration of the continually changing city of Los Angeles. We are in a period of fast moving change and development which I intend to continue to reflect on as it occurs. The automobile, media & constantly changing entertainment industry images are part of the fabric of this diverse and stimulating city.
This ongoing series began by accident when I inadvertently photographed overlapping scenes as one faded out and another faded in. My photography teacher and mentor in the 1970’s encouraged what he called “happy accidents” as a way to push his students creatively. That is what originally inspired what has become the “Fade Out / Fade In” Series of overlapping images from my source material. This work could be considered as much conceptual as pictoral however I chose to share only the ones that work (for my vision) and are within my chosen aesthetic.
It is my intention to be as abstract within the literal form of photography which by it’s very nature is a representation of reality. In most of my work from media content, I try to avoid a narrative or an image which can be easily identified. Occasionally (as in this series) I make an image that I call “Implied Narrative” for which the viewer may be inclined to create an imaginary narrative in their mind as they view the picture.
39 Winter Retirement Homes on my parents street in Tucson Arizona 2007; I took a walk while visiting my parents in 2007 at their modest winter home (theirs is #3) in Tucson, Arizona. I was struck by the beautiful light and the orderly homes and surroundings in that community of manufactured homes. Their community was populated in large part by retirees of their generation, many were World War II veterans and their spouses. This collection of photographs make me reflect on that group of people, the lives they lead and those modest homes that they so obviously took great pride in. My parents are no longer with us but that evening, the walk I took and my thoughts of that orderly modest community and what it represents live with me in this group of photographs.
