Thing-Centered
Photographs
Surrounded and Suspended
in Black Space
Collected Projects
1980’s - present
1980’s - present
Thing-Centered Photographs 1992-94 / 2019
Introduction
I have a strong feeling or intuition that any object in the world, though inanimate, silent, and supposedly insentient, are nonetheless very much alive and share in a Consciousness directly related to our own. I can often feel Things trying to make contact with me, as if they have something important they need to "say" to me.
Also, I sense that some things seem sad . . . and I can’t help but wonder if it's in part because we humans are not listening, not paying enough attention to the life in things and what they are trying to tell us.
A successful Thing photograph, then, represents a kind of “listening.” In fact Thing images function as a means for me to “hear,” to know (in some subtle way) what a thing is trying to communicate to me in its special kind of silence. To make a photograph and to contemplate the image constitutes a kind of silent dialogue that is deeply meaningful to me.
As strange as it may seem, I believe a good Thing photograph has the ability to give voice to that which a thing is trying to communicate. But this requires on the part of the viewer a willingness to enter a state of stillness and establish an open hearted relationship with the image.
My photographs are a way for me to honor Things and their “silent world” by placing them at the center of my attention, and oftentimes literally placing the thing in the center, the heart of the black space, which for me is a visual metaphor for silence.
The "Thing Photograph" emerged in my work consciously in 1984 after having read Robert Bly's book News of the Universe, and particularly his chapter on "The Object Poem" which included works by Rilke, Francis Ponge, Robert Bly and many other poets. Bly's introductory texts celebrate in an enlightening way the evolution of consciousness as reflected in the history of poetry. Visit Poetry: News of the Universe.
My photographs are a way for me to honor Things and their “silent world” by placing them at the center of my attention, and oftentimes literally placing the thing in the center, the heart of the black space, which for me is a visual metaphor for silence.
The poem, below, entitled Stone, by Charles Simic, was included in Bly's book and it was a major influence on my desire to make "Thing photographs."
Stone
Go inside a stone.
That would be my way.
Let somebody else become a dove
Or gnash with a tiger’s tooth.
I am happy to be a stone.
From the outside the stone is a riddle:
No one knows how to answer it.
Yet within, it must be cool and quiet
Even though a cow steps on it full weight,
Even though a child throws it in a river;
The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed
To the river bottom
Where the fishes come to knock on it
And listen.
I have seen sparks fly out
When two stones are rubbed,
So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;
Perhaps there is a moon shining
From somewhere, as though behind a hill--
Just enough light to make out
The strange writings, the star-charts
On the inner walls.
The first photography project that included "Thing Photographs" was Family Life (1985-88). Then in 1992-93 I focused exclusively on the idea with the project Thing-centered photographs 1992-94. This project initiated a six-year project which was inspired by miniature piano compositions. Studies contains many, many Thing Centered photographs, like the one below.
(1992-94 No black border)
1994-2000
Studies Photograph, 1994-20000
The Thing-Centered Photographs (surrounded and suspended in black space)
In the year 1999 I began photographing garages in small format silver gelatin print formats, and later, in 2006, that project took on a digital format in which I made 18x18" inkjet digital versions of the garage series photographs suspended in black space as in the image below.
(2006 Digital prints)
Digital Garage Photograph "Skeleton Garage" in black space 18x18"
The later Thing photographs, below, made after 2006 present Things suspended in black space, or a rectangular Thing image is suspended in black space. In either case, there had to be a way the black of the space surrounding the object image or the rectangular image could enter into and merge with the black within the object or rectangle.
The way the black works in the image is important; I always thought of the black as a form of light, a presence of Silence. The merging of the black of the surrounding border of the image with the black inside image has something to do with my idea of the Symbolic Photograph, an image radiant with grace which has merged or united or conjoined inner world imagery with its outer-world corresponding counterpart.
I have so many of these images I found it difficult to select but a few for this blog presentation. I wish you could shuffle through the box of prints yourself. The prints have a remarkable matte surface that gives the blacks a silky, silent depth and presence.
Thing-Centered Photograph, Basketball hoop 18x18"inkjet print
Thing-Centered Photograph, Peach on a line 18x18"inkjet print
Thing-Centered Photograph, Roll of toilet paper 18x18"inkjet print
Thing-Centered Photograph, Electric Cord 18x18"inkjet print
Thing-Centered Photograph, Fish 18x18"inkjet print
Thing-Centered Photograph, Sunflower 18x18"inkjet print
Thing-Centered Photograph, Ancient Sculpture of a man's head 18x18"inkjet print
Thing-Centered Photograph, Fishing pole 18x18"inkjet print
Thing-Centered Photograph, The stairs 18x18"inkjet print
Thing-Centered Photograph, Footprint in coal dust 18x18"inkjet print
Thing-Centered Photograph, Storm Cloud, color 18x18"inkjet print
Continued History of the "Thing Photograph"
Family Life
Studies
Garage Series
Studies III
Studies IV
recent Studies projects
Visual Poems
The first Studies project of miniature silver gelatin prints included a mix of newly made images of "things" (made between 1994-2000) plus images I made within earlier photography projects which I reprinted into the Studies miniature square 3.5" x 3.5" format.
When I transitioned into digital printing in 2003 I began making 18x18 digital print versions of the earlier thing centered and garage photographs, suspended in black space, and I went on to continue making new thing photographs as well. I used many of these digitized thing images as "building blocks" with which I constructed the Repetition Triads and other thematic subgroups for the Triadic Memories project.
The Thing Centered Photographs collection grew into hundreds of images, many of which had subtly, gradually morphed into a different kind of image that was less "thing" centered. In March, 1922 I decided to collect those images into a separate titled body of work: Postludes, images surrounded and suspended in black space which have a more human based implied narrative, or images about the relationships between things, or images more emotionally charged or about events in time . . . meanings which are not so directly related to the subject photographed.
Welcome Page to The Departing Landscape website which includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating back to the 1960's, my resume, contact information, and more.
The Sacred in Things, Places and Photographs September 11-2022
The first Studies project of miniature silver gelatin prints included a mix of newly made images of "things" (made between 1994-2000) plus images I made within earlier photography projects which I reprinted into the Studies miniature square 3.5" x 3.5" format.
When I transitioned into digital printing in 2003 I began making 18x18 digital print versions of the earlier thing centered and garage photographs, suspended in black space, and I went on to continue making new thing photographs as well. I used many of these digitized thing images as "building blocks" with which I constructed the Repetition Triads and other thematic subgroups for the Triadic Memories project.
The Thing Centered Photographs collection grew into hundreds of images, many of which had subtly, gradually morphed into a different kind of image that was less "thing" centered. In March, 1922 I decided to collect those images into a separate titled body of work: Postludes, images surrounded and suspended in black space which have a more human based implied narrative, or images about the relationships between things, or images more emotionally charged or about events in time . . . meanings which are not so directly related to the subject photographed.
I then used the Thing and Postlude images suspended in black space for my project (in two parts) entitled Visual Poems, which are part of the multi-chaptered project entitled The Departing Landscape.
The Thing-Centered photograph has been a constant companion throughout the years. It can be found in just about every project I have ever made. See for example my Still Life photographs inspired by the painter Giorgio Morandi. And Most recently, 2020-22 I Thing photographs are included in many of my Pandemic Inspired projects.
This project was revised
September 11, 2022
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