Posts Tagged Photography

Each Day, A Walk

Oct 8

Posted by CG in Art, Nature, Photography | No Comments

I’ve been invited to exhibit my photography as part of a series of Cape Cod ‘Master Photographers’. I haven’t produced a show of photography in some time, so it’s been a bit of a process generating a relevant theme to the show. My last journey out to Sandy Neck did the business. I’ve got the goods.

As an artist, one has the challenge of actually producing art. Art is the product of vision. Therefore, one must merely have the vision in order to produce the art. The problem is, however, that vision is elusive. It isn’t for lack of seeing, but understanding. Too many times we see art all around us, but do we understand what our vision is telling us what to see? Too often, we do not.

Inspiration seemingly arrives with the wind. We wake up seeing AND understanding. We are ready to make art. We are ready to understand our art, and with determination capture our vision in the medium of our choosing.

I created the foundation of my art in the natural world. I generally use unnatural man-made technological devices to create my art, but there would be no art without nature. My connection with the natural world is made by walking in it. When I walk in nature…

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Man of Sun

Oct 7

Posted by CG in Nature, Photography | No Comments

The spirit moved me today. Woken well before dawn, I was informed that today should be one of worship. Worship all that is holy in my life. A truly ennobling day.

I finished planting the remainder of my volunteer tree collection by midday. Six hollies, six cedars, and a yew. I love planting trees. I’ve already lost count of how many I’ve planted even this year.

I did so many things early in the day that they cannot all be accounted for. I saved the best for last. Today was a spectacular day for making photographs. The light was absolute perfection. October on Cape Cod is best for this light. It cannot be described any other way than by photography. It is the language of light, and the literature of light can only truly be rendered photographically.

As a photographer that has made many errors in judgement over many years, I feel qualified to characterize the quality of light unconditionally. It is my right. As in all things that are right, we have access to instinct to guide us past any indecision. Purity in anything is apt to be invisible to anyone trying to find it. When purity is in the mind, there is no mistaking the clarity of no reason for vision. We see, we feel, we are there.

Thus did I venture forth again to Sandy Neck for one more uncountable journey. This time was again fantastic. I immediately encountered a concept I’d never truly grasped. A new way to photograph. Commitment to a single lens is a form of photographic purity. Commitment to camera support (a monopod today) is another. The statement begins to be made in the commitment to portage and to limits.

Each day, a walk. For many years have I lived this fortune. Breaking open the cookie, and finding the message is my analogy for searching past my creative boundaries. If I strive for this every day, I shall never be a slave.

You are offered the dream of a lifetime. Say yes!

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Feeding Imaginary Goats

Oct 6

Posted by CG in Art, Photography, Ranting | No Comments

I’m going to recycle a piece I wrote some years ago. I just re-read it for the first time in a long time. It sure is special…

Feeding Imaginary Goats

I am not sure that asking me to write about art is a good idea. Asking me to ruminate upon the nature of things is like turning the goats loose on your lawn. Before you know it, they’ve eaten the trees.

This article began life as a musing upon the art of seeing, but then started leering stubbornly towards a treatise of the creative process. Creation is life. Growth is life manifested. Creation feeds off the
self-perpetuating enigma of growth, thoroughly, like a goat.

As a photographer I am engaged in the practice of capturing instants of light. I see things that others do not. Like a man who believes in ghosts or UFO’s, I feel compelled to record evidence of that which I see for a purpose I am unsure how to define. I gather proof that the mystery exists, but make no attempt to solve it. Perhaps a solution might enable the corruption of some unknowable beauty.

Looking at things with our eyes and processing the visual information is something most of us do all day long. Seeing is more of an event characterized by the sudden realization that we have proof of the divine nature of vision right before us. Like a rainbow, the lazy man’s lobster of enlightenment, a vision of magnitude has the power to stop a person in their tracks and feel both empty and full all at once.

Photography has a universal appeal in that it affords anyone the opportunity to exploit a technology with a feeling of confidence. We imagine that we now have a device that is fully in our control, and that we have the power to use this tool to record evidence of things we have seen. Can we truly? How often does a photograph stop a person in their tracks and cause them to marvel?

Skill is an ego trip for people who do things. Those content to simply be, have no need of skill. In order to learn photography one must obtain skill. In order to see, however, one must learn to be. The pitfall of pure skill is to achieve pure nothing. One must have a goal which justifies the acquisition of skill. It is the belief in the beauty of all things truly seen that provides my rationale for acquiring the skill of photography.

As a badge, as a shield, or as a talisman, the camera may be carried religiously. For those who care enough to see, it should be carried as a divining rod. Used properly, the camera is an instrument through which meaningful energy can pass through undiminished. A camera cannot see, however, and it is important to believe that we do not need the camera to see.

I have become obsessed with the act of creation. I make photographs and electronic music professionally, and I dabble in an evolving set of creative endeavors from performance to writing. I stir the pot. I program chaos into my life for the sole purpose of stimulating new shoots to nibble on, for there is nothing quite so tasty as a budding green concept.

In order to feed an unyielding appetite for new growth I am cultivating an increasingly wide variety of creative flora with the belief that diversifying my diet will yield a fuller, more rewarding understanding of the nature of my surroundings. In other words, I feed imaginary goats.

Stubbornly, the symbolism won’t be ignored. Pragmatically, hungrily, the goats return to munching.

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