Long ago
I stood alone at dawn above Tuscany’s Arno River Valley.
As the sun rose above the distant azure mountains
its rays rolled thickly through the pastures and forests
like honey pouring out of a lazy yellow crystal beaker.
I was embraced by its soft warmth
as if enfolded in the arms of my loved one.
It made me all the more desirous of capturing light with my camera.
There was an essential link between the light and my beautiful woman.
My life’s journey
is not only about brightness out of darkness
but for beautiful light,
is a way of arresting
even grasping time as though life itself
could be held within the image,
and in that,
my life could be mythically prolonged
in an innocent meditative state.
Now, at my age,
I realise there is longing in my wish to hold the light,
to touch it as if it were my lover’s body –
something rare, precious, and beyond life itself
or a consummate expression of human existence.
A photograph and perhaps a painting,
in an age of disintegration and barbaric horror
can only be as valid and meaningful as the actions if describes.
In my nagging curiosity to understand the world surrounding me
while seeking to never turn away,
I have wished to develop a truthful, relevant voice
that would mature my work
and provide thoughts and tear laden emotional responses
to whom-so-ever would be my audience.
Illumination provides the light to look into people’s souls.
Elif Shafak recently wrote:
“Observation cannot be passive, aloof, detached or elitist.
Nor can it consist of viewing the world from a position of safety or superiority,
with the intention of uncovering other people’s errors, sins or wrongs.”
A perfect description of photographer’s existential expeditions
into the hinterlands of our emotional lives
seeking, like detectives, desperate truths others wish not to witness.
You can see many of my photographs and films here
COMING SOON:
A LEARNING SITE BEGINNING WITH 3 X 26 MINUTE FILMS.
A MANUAL AND MANY OTHER EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
FOR ENGAGING IN A MEANINGFUL JOURNEY
TO CREATE RELEVANT, POWERFUL AND TRUTHFUL PHOTOGRAPHS
WHICH FULFIL THE PHOTOGRAPHER
AND MAY SERVE THE COMMUNITY WITH A GIFT OF CULTURE.