7th annual fraction magazine holiday print sale

I'm happy to be part of the holiday print sale again this year. David Bram does a great job of assembling  a set of very affordable, limited edition prints by photographers whose work has been previously featured in the magazine. There are 85 prints in the sale. My offering this year is one of the swimming pool photographs. There are only 12 available. They're 8" x 8" printed on Museo Silver Rag paper and are $150. A percentage of the proceeds go toward keeping Fraction Magazine afloat.

There are some really nice photographs available this year. Check it out here.

it's always the same and it's always different

Making photos from the same spot day after day reminds me that while things stay the same, they are also changing. Here's my most recent pool picture, made from the window I pass several times a day when I walk down the hall of my apartment building.

Have you ever seen the movie "Smoke"? There's a character in the film who takes a picture from the same vantage point - a street corner - every day for 11 years (for a total of 4,000 photos). On the surface the scenes look the same. Only until we slow down and look closely at the changes, some subtle and some not, do we begin to grasp the notion that time - and our own perspectives - are constantly reshaping and redefining that which seems familiar. 

summertime

The pool season has opened, and I've parked my camera by the front door so I'll always be ready. Hope to capture some nice images now that summer has officially begun! Here's one of my pool shots from last week.

pool pictures

You may recall that I started a series of swimming pool pictures last summer. It's the pool that I can see from the hallway window of our building.

It stays the same, and it changes. I check it out everyday.

I'm excited that the pool will open in a few days, but there have been pictures to make even when it was closed for the season. (The top three are from last year.)

Lone Figure

Orange Ball

Rain

Snow

Resurfacing

Refilling

Cleaning

Pear Blossoms

why i do it

One of my new pool images made earlier this month

If you saw my recent exhibition (or read the catalogue), you are already familiar with the "ode to photography" I wrote. If not, I hope you enjoy it now.

I was extremely flattered recently when Reid Callanan (director of the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops) asked my permission to share it with incoming students at each of the Sunday night welcome dinners preceding the week-long workshops this summer.

It's really nice to get that kind of validation from someone I have long respected.

Here it is:

Sometimes I take pictures to get a closer look.

Sometimes I take pictures to prove that something happened.

Sometimes I take pictures so I can remember how I felt.

Sometimes I take pictures so I can hide behind the camera.


Sometimes I take pictures because things seem confusing.


Sometimes I take pictures to introduce people to one another.


Sometimes I take pictures to make sure someone doesn’t disappear.


Sometimes I take pictures because it feels good to be alive.

Sometimes I take pictures because the sadness is unspeakable.

Sometimes I take pictures to change someone’s mind.


Sometimes I take pictures because there is nothing left to say.


Sometimes I take pictures so I know which way to go.


Sometimes I take pictures because things will never be the same.


Sometimes I take pictures so I can see things in a new way.


Sometimes I take pictures to give someone else a voice.


Sometimes I take pictures because the "ordinary" is so much more.

Sometimes I take pictures to leave reminders that I was here.

I take pictures because I have to.
And because there are very few things I’d rather be doing.

strike the set and keep on going

After all that,
my show has to come down now
just when it seemed we finally got it up.
Make room in the closets and storage
bins and on the upright shelves.

I have made another photograph from the end of my hallway. It's of the pool again. Seems a simple shift of subject matter on the same exact pallet is kind of appealing.

Again with the shapes.

Yeah, it's true, I was horrible in every math class I ever took - except for geometry, that is.

swimmer

Living in our condo means frequent walks down a hallway to get onto the elevator. At the end of our hall is a window that overlooks the swimming pool. We’re on the fourth floor. It’s a pretty cool view.

I don’t know why, but both Eddie and I have gotten in the habit of looking out that window whenever we walk down the hall... just to see what’s happening down at the pool. Usually nothing is happening. Sometimes there is someone swimming laps. Sometimes there are a couple people sunning in the lounge chairs. Usually, though, we just look down at the empty pool, spend a few seconds at the window, then continue on toward the elevator.

Yesterday I was on my way to do a portrait and had my camera gear with me as I walked to the window. I saw a man face down in the pool. He did not move. After a minute or so, he lifted his face out of the water, took a breath, then slowly lowered his face back into the water.

I pulled out my camera and made the above picture.

Later, in the car on the way to my shoot, I thought of the photograph “Underwater Swimmer” by Andre Kertesz. It was made in Hungary in 1917.