Photography
I have two goals for this portion of the website. One is to share my work more widely than is possible with prints hanging on my own walls, and I make no apology for the self-indulgence of that desire.
The second goal is to provide a repository of images that I discuss in various online forums--forums with limited abilities for displaying work. Thus, I will endeavor to make links externally accessible. I realize this is a risk, in terms of image theft. All images are protected by copyright and I do use services that look for places on the Internet where images have been used. The images can be and have been made available for a worthy cause, and if you want to use an image, just ask. So, look and enjoy, but do not appropriate these images without permission. All rights are reserved.
An artifact of the goal of supporting current forum conversations is that the photos themselves disproportionately represent work I've done since about 2000, when my photo forum activity really got started. There is some work from before that time, but much of my best work from the past is still waiting on the scanner. Since I prefer to be in the field when I have time for photography, that stuff will appear only very slowly.
It is fashionable for photographers to include an artist's statement. Here's mine:
I like making photographs. Sometimes, something I see compels me, either because of the quality of the light, the singular beauty of a place, or some feeling deep down to which I attempt to respond but that I cannot explain. Many of my photos are just like photos other people take, and I make no apology for that. Some think that the trope of pretty pictures of pretty places has been fully explored, with little new to be said. Maybe they are right. I do not seek out innovation for its own sake, nor do I study the art market to determine what is and is not considered innovative. Even when I do study art, I usually fail to understand what others are talking about. In the end, I just like making photographs, and they have to stand on their own, or not.
Sometimes I just make photographs to explore technique or as equipment play, as an expression of the ability to understand and manipulate the technical apparatus and processes. It's considered anti-artistic to just like playing with cameras, and my photos probably do nothing to refute that belief. But children paint with their fingers with no concern beyond the feeling of the paint on their skin and the guilty pleasure of making an approved mess. When it comes to art, I don't mind being that naïve, but I will never attempt to seek naïvete as an effect by purposely employing unskilled technique.