Peeling the Onion
“A Hat and A Dream” was originally going to be the title for this series. When I have an idea of how I am going to create a portrait, it often goes out the window once I start work. Doris owned over 200 vintage hats and had a decades old dream of telling a story with those hats. She wanted to tell stories with the hats, funny stories. She is a funny person. You would not think that when you first meet her, but if you get to know her you find that she is very funny, sometimes in a dramatic way sometimes in a subtle way.
I like to tell stories and I tell lots of stories through my pictures. I liked Doris and her vintage hats and wanted to help Doris realize her dream by telling her hat story in this portrait series. But I realized that photographing Doris was like peeling an onion, stripping different sides of her as we talked and made pictures. Hence, I named the series Peeling the Onion.
Doris let me put colored dots on her face. I used the dots to dramatically mimic the vintage hat netting which partially covers the face. I think the dots help people to look beyond a person’s age and to notice other things about that person. I like to think that people have more in common than we would think despite age or any physical differences we may all have.
What if I were to tell you that I was the onion? Each picture I make is a layer of the onion. I can’t predict what I will find under that layer, but I make the picture anyway. My artistic process is a private thing to me which makes peeling that onion difficult.
To make a good portrait I need to communicate my thoughts to the person I am photographing. I never know what that person will think about it. Fortunately, people have been adventurous and have gone along and even contributed to the process of making the photograph. They also have been generous in sharing layers of their onion with me.
Fenced Dragon
I am not afraid of death, but the process of dying itself.
My brother had asked me if I wanted to go see foreclosed property where two deer died in an attempt to jump a fence. I was interested in how the deer that could easily jump a six-foot fence could get impaled on a five-foot fence, so I asked my brother to drive me to the site.
I found that the carcasses of the deer were rotting on the fence like my brother had told me. The two deer were in various states of decay on different parts of the property. It was the first week of spring after a brutally cold and snowy winter. When the earth was buried in snow the deer tried to jump the fence and sank into the snow as they made their leap. They had no hard ground to make the jump off of and ended up getting caught on the fence that was spiked at the top. They died a slow painful death.
No one heard their cries; no one saw their struggle as they died. Predators had left their marks, including me. Am I a predator taking pictures making my marks or am I telling their story? I did not hear their cries or see their struggle. I only saw the evidence of their slow struggle to die. And now I will also observe their decay.
I can tell their story, but will someone hear or see me?
Am I the deer? Taking my pictures that may or may not be seen. Like the deer no one sees my struggles. Or am I a predator taking the last thing the deer have left to give – their story.
Wizard
I love my car.
I hate my car.
I hate my car.
I love my car.
After 14 years my car is still cute despite it worn seats and pitted exterior. I don’t blame it for breaking down once in a while. Really, I don’t blame the car. The car is old and is entitled to break down once in a while.
Like most people nowadays I can’t afford to get a new car. To be honest I am a sentimental person and have grown attached to the car. It is a green Volkswagon Beetle and has about 78,000 miles on it. I like to think of the car as vintage rather then old. It makes me feel better about driving it.
Over the years I have many mechanics service my car. Victor was the last mechanic to work on my car. Victor with the German accent and the gold tooth who laughed at me when I got myself locked in my car and when my car would fill with water when it rained.
Kal is my current mechanic. He is a great mechanic who has a nice way of giving me the bad news about my car that does not make me feel bad about my car. Kal is the the person who has inspired me to create the pictures featured in Wizard. I have spent a lot of time in Kal’s shop waiting for my car to be repaired. One day while waiting for an oil change I thought to myself that Kal was a lot like the Wizard from the story “The Wizard of Oz”. He is the person people come to for help when their cars are broken down. He is the Wizard who fixes their cars and sends them on their way home.
Kal allowed me to photograph his shop during working hours. He often gave me auto parts that might be of interest to me. Wizard is a portrait of Kal’s Car repair shop loosely based on the OZ story and other ideas I had while taking photographs of the shop and things found in the shop when I was there.
At times I see myself as Dorothy with a green Volkswagon Beetle. I come to the Wizard to fix my car. In the OZ story it is not the Wizard that sends her home but she sends herself home with the Ruby Slippers. I think in time I need to find a way to get a new car, but for now I am thankful the Wizard is here keeping my Green Bug going.
“A Hat and A Dream” was originally going to be the title for this series. When I have an idea of how I am going to create a portrait, it often goes out the window once I start work. Doris owned over 200 vintage hats and had a decades old dream of telling a story with those hats. She wanted to tell stories with the hats, funny stories. She is a funny person. You would not think that when you first meet her, but if you get to know her you find that she is very funny, sometimes in a dramatic way sometimes in a subtle way.
I like to tell stories and I tell lots of stories through my pictures. I liked Doris and her vintage hats and wanted to help Doris realize her dream by telling her hat story in this portrait series. But I realized that photographing Doris was like peeling an onion, stripping different sides of her as we talked and made pictures. Hence, I named the series Peeling the Onion.
Doris let me put colored dots on her face. I used the dots to dramatically mimic the vintage hat netting which partially covers the face. I think the dots help people to look beyond a person’s age and to notice other things about that person. I like to think that people have more in common than we would think despite age or any physical differences we may all have.
What if I were to tell you that I was the onion? Each picture I make is a layer of the onion. I can’t predict what I will find under that layer, but I make the picture anyway. My artistic process is a private thing to me which makes peeling that onion difficult.
To make a good portrait I need to communicate my thoughts to the person I am photographing. I never know what that person will think about it. Fortunately, people have been adventurous and have gone along and even contributed to the process of making the photograph. They also have been generous in sharing layers of their onion with me.
Fenced Dragon
I am not afraid of death, but the process of dying itself.
My brother had asked me if I wanted to go see foreclosed property where two deer died in an attempt to jump a fence. I was interested in how the deer that could easily jump a six-foot fence could get impaled on a five-foot fence, so I asked my brother to drive me to the site.
I found that the carcasses of the deer were rotting on the fence like my brother had told me. The two deer were in various states of decay on different parts of the property. It was the first week of spring after a brutally cold and snowy winter. When the earth was buried in snow the deer tried to jump the fence and sank into the snow as they made their leap. They had no hard ground to make the jump off of and ended up getting caught on the fence that was spiked at the top. They died a slow painful death.
No one heard their cries; no one saw their struggle as they died. Predators had left their marks, including me. Am I a predator taking pictures making my marks or am I telling their story? I did not hear their cries or see their struggle. I only saw the evidence of their slow struggle to die. And now I will also observe their decay.
I can tell their story, but will someone hear or see me?
Am I the deer? Taking my pictures that may or may not be seen. Like the deer no one sees my struggles. Or am I a predator taking the last thing the deer have left to give – their story.
Wizard
I love my car.
I hate my car.
I hate my car.
I love my car.
After 14 years my car is still cute despite it worn seats and pitted exterior. I don’t blame it for breaking down once in a while. Really, I don’t blame the car. The car is old and is entitled to break down once in a while.
Like most people nowadays I can’t afford to get a new car. To be honest I am a sentimental person and have grown attached to the car. It is a green Volkswagon Beetle and has about 78,000 miles on it. I like to think of the car as vintage rather then old. It makes me feel better about driving it.
Over the years I have many mechanics service my car. Victor was the last mechanic to work on my car. Victor with the German accent and the gold tooth who laughed at me when I got myself locked in my car and when my car would fill with water when it rained.
Kal is my current mechanic. He is a great mechanic who has a nice way of giving me the bad news about my car that does not make me feel bad about my car. Kal is the the person who has inspired me to create the pictures featured in Wizard. I have spent a lot of time in Kal’s shop waiting for my car to be repaired. One day while waiting for an oil change I thought to myself that Kal was a lot like the Wizard from the story “The Wizard of Oz”. He is the person people come to for help when their cars are broken down. He is the Wizard who fixes their cars and sends them on their way home.
Kal allowed me to photograph his shop during working hours. He often gave me auto parts that might be of interest to me. Wizard is a portrait of Kal’s Car repair shop loosely based on the OZ story and other ideas I had while taking photographs of the shop and things found in the shop when I was there.
At times I see myself as Dorothy with a green Volkswagon Beetle. I come to the Wizard to fix my car. In the OZ story it is not the Wizard that sends her home but she sends herself home with the Ruby Slippers. I think in time I need to find a way to get a new car, but for now I am thankful the Wizard is here keeping my Green Bug going.