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The Beach ~ Fall 2009
Photography is an art that captures an instant of temporality on the pretense that one is capturing what is real, what is there when, in fact, what the photographic image re-presents as a finisSalt Marsh ~ Fall 2009
Photographic images contribute in two ways to the making sense of the world. Both are highly contextual fully dependent on embedded experience. For the photographer, making sense of the world is acSymmetry ~ Fall 2009
The difference between Buber’s “I” and “thou” is, according to both Derrida and Levinas, much the same as the difference between the ego and the other exiMarsh Fog at Sunrise ~ Fall 2009
An illusion of reality? Arnold Newman is on the right track. Another way to look at this idea is that the photograph is a supplement for the origins it is attempting to capture. If the natural worlEggs No. 1 ~ Fall 2009
How does one encounter a photographic image? After all, the image is visual, contains no words, no sentences, no paragraphs, no linguistic structure, yet, the only way one can engageRock River Autumn Morning ~ Fall 2009
I would not go so far as Dave Lee by arguing that a photograph re-presents the photographer’s truth as an absolute function of the notion of truth. Rather, I want to argue that the image aSunrise Near McHenry Dam ~ Fall 2009
Photographs capture that which the photographer attempts to capture. The creative experience is one in which one attempts to re-present a spontaneous or original image in such a way as to evoke a resSonoran Desert No. 4 ~ Fall 2009
Photographs do not re-present the real. As a photographer I frame a shot, convert what I see in three dimensions into two dimensions, removing all that I consider visually unappealing. Because ofFlag ~ Fall 2009
Good photographs, like good writing, like good arguments, pose questions. There is nothing straightforward about the photographic image. In each instance, when I instruct my finger to releaseWind-Power ~ Fall 2009
Located subjectively somewhere between the absolute moment of existence, the moment that is always already gone, removed from presence by the remembrances of the embedded trace, that which no lCanada Goose ~ Fall 2009
The photographic image carries with it an assumption of Truth in the sense that the camera records that which is presumed to actually be present in the frame. On its arrival, photography was thoughWhere are they Biting ~ Fall 2009
In what way does a photograph document an event, a place, a time, an era? Photographic images have the appearance of freezing time, making that which was photographed an artifact of a placeThree Boats ~ Fall 2009
In the end, does it matter that I may have technical competence in photography? Does it matter that I have invested in equipment that helps me achieve the vision I bring to the process of image mWeb and Dew ~ Fall 2009
The photographic image captures a present that is always already gone. I have said that time and time again. The image I show here re-presents just that idea. The image was made early one Fall morninWhite Pines No. 1 ~ Fall 2009
Agents of Death? What could Barthes mean? Let me see if I can make any sense of this dire reference. For some time now I have argued that the photograph scratches the surface of the infinity of eWhite Pines No. 2 ~ Fall 2009
Much of image making is intuitive. Because, as a photographer, I attempt to capture a moment corresponding to the existential moment, a moment that is always already gone, I have learned to eEarly Morning Haze ~ Fall 2009
How do I describe what I saw with mere words? Language, especially spoken language, is as fleeting as the moment in which it exists. Say something and that something is always already departed%McHenry Dam No. 7 ~ Fall 2009
Photography occurs in fractions of seconds; by photographing something the photographer both creates a visual text thereby preserving something of the object being photographed and creates the artiFox River Sunrise ~ Fall 2009
In Rex’s Blues, songwriter Townes van Zandt wrote, There ain’t no dark ’till something shines. Meaning is dependent on the difference between the light and the dark. One aMoraine Hills Tree ~ Fall 2009
Riboud is only partly right. Photography is evidence of a specific moment in time modified by the photographer’s point of view, intent, skill, and experience. So what can one judge as eMcHenry Dam No. 6 ~ Fall 2009
The photographic image is the reflection of the photographer’s vision, his or her passion. By printing an image the photographer makes public that vision and passion. What is seen by one caRepeats ~ Fall 2009
Today I stop working for a few hours. This morning I will undergo prostate surgery that, if successful, will clear a blockage that in the most polite terms makes life more like a drip than a faucSugar Maple ~ Fall 2009
I often hear people comment when looking at my work something to the effect that “I took a photograph just like that once, only yours is better.” Now I don’t mean to brag orForest Sunrise ~ Fall 2009
Photographs are not rational in the sense that they are something to be talked about, reduced to language. No, they are to be experienced at every level of engagement from the creating of the imaMorning Frost ~ Fall 2009
The photograph is an artifact of an existential event, not the event itself. The image re-presents a moment frozen in time, a moment that can only occur once, that infinitely brief moment in wApple River Canyon No. 3 ~ Fall 2009
The instant the shutter snaps the image in the photographer’s viewfinder is already gone, replaced by an infinite number of new images that, while appearing the same, are subtly differeSolitude No. 4 ~ Fall 2009
I tend to photograph landscapes alone, walking trails that mark particular journeys that sometimes inspire great awe and other times simply leave me flat. While I am walking I am always looking atFall Colors No. 3 ~ Fall 2009
Just what is “that other reality” Uelsmann is talking about? That other reality begs the question of what is reality in the first place. So let’s begin this brief exploratioApple River Canyon No. 2 ~ Fall 2009
I photograph nature. My motivation is simple, straightforward. By photographing nature I meditate on the nature of the self as a participant in a lived experience. I learn more about me than I everLake La-Aqua-Na ~ Fall 2009
The image in this post was made at Lake La-Aqua-Na State Park just outside of Lena, Illinois. Trees exploded into bright Fall colors and the lake was calm and inviting in spite of the crisp morning
