Things Suspended In Space
Part II of "Thing-Centered Photographs"
A 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT ~ September ??, 2024
Introduction
Before we continue, I want to encourage you to first visit this project's companion project, Things In Their Place, which is Part I of a three-part project I intend to create entitled Thing Centered Photographs, Parts I, II & III. I consider the introductory text to the first project an important introduction to what I have to say here in this project's Part II introductory text. Part III is tentatively entitled The Internal Dimension of A Thing : Symmetrical Thing-Centered Photographs.
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Note: All of the photographs you will see in this blog project, and its two companion projects, exist as 12x12" inkjet prints. The square 12x12" format is something I have become fully committed to particularly since beginning my 2023-2024 Inkjet Print Project back in February, 2023 which now consists of ten 12x12" Inkjet Print Books (non-thematic collections of favorite images from my huge inventory of blog projects and digital images made since 2011); twenty-one 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECTS (collections of images that relate to each other in some thematic way, such as subject matter, formal issues, conceptual ideas, etc.); plus I made a collection of inkjet prints in larger sizes and formates (other than 12x12").
As I wrote in my introduction to Things In Their Place, Part I of this three part project, the square format makes the most sense visually for me in relation to the concept of Thing-Centered Photographs. Because all sides of the frame are equal, the square format will intuitively direct (almost force) a viewer to the center of the space where, in most cases, the thing or things I have photograph seem to naturally want to be placed.
My "Thing photographs" often look very simple and straightforwardly composed because I usually place the thing in the center of the square frame. If I am centering my attention on the thing itself, it has to be placed in the center of the frame. The center is the place of honoring; the place of seeing a thing intensely; the place where one can pay closest attention to a thing without be distracted by other things. The center of any space is the heart, the most sacred place of any space; the most essential place where a thing's living presence can have its clearest and most direct voice. For it has been my experience that things want to tell us something; things have something they need to share with us.
When I am making thing-centered photographs, if I place the image any where else other than the center, in most cases that gesture draws the viewer's attention away from the thing, and places emphasis on my act, my decision rather than on the thing itself.
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What is a "Thing"?
This question must be addressed (in not adequately answered) because in this project the context into which the thing photographed has been placed is merely a black or white tone; in other words, a space that is in a strange kind of way invisible, or perhaps one could say "abstract" or "non-representable," for we often (unconsciously) recognize or identify a thing by the context in which it is found.
In the photographs you will be seeing in this project I have removed any visible, familiar (representational) context that may have existed around the object when I made the exposure in my camera; then I have placed the thing in a single surrounding tonality. And in some cases I have added an additional surrounding tonal matte, usually a slight bit lighter or darker than the picture's tonal field. When we view this kind of visual image, we necessarily are confronted with the dilemma of being face-to-face, and alone with an object; it's up to us as viewers to come to some terms with the thing pictured. Even if we may cannot identify the thing before us, and have come face-to-face with the Unknown, it is up to us to come into some meaningful relationship with the thing. Ant that might require a process of contemplation.
A quick survey of the thing-images included in this project reveals that most of the images are dominated by a surrounding black space, some are surrounded by white space, and in few cases the thing is surrounded (suspended) in a light gray tonal space. In one case (see below) half of the image has been tonally inversed such that the tonal field is split between two tones, each one a tonal opposite of the other.
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Regarding the thing photographed; if its not obvious to you, and the title or text I have included with the image doesn't help, then I ask you simply to consider the thing's presence. If the thing has a living presence, then (in my opinion) it deserves as much respect from us as any other thing we think we know.
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Regarding the photographs in which I have suspended the thing in the center of black space: the black tone is (for me) a visual metaphor for Silence, Stillness or Timelessness.
Regarding the photographs in which I have suspended the thing in the center of white space: the white tone is (for me) a visual metaphor for Silence, Stillness, or Timelessness.
Regarding the photographs in which I have suspended the thing in the center of a light gray tonal space: that tone is (for me as well) a visual metaphor for Silence, Stillness, or Timelessness.
If the tonal space means something else to you, that's fine with me. As far as I am concerned, "Meaning" is in the eye, mind, consciousness . . . of the beholder.
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I have been an ardent student of Siddha Yoga and the Siddha Yoga Teachings since 1987. I love this path; the teachings feel right and True, for me. According to this yogic path Silence and Stillness is said to be the essential nature of God, the divine Self (which in the Hindu Tradition is often referred to Shiva or Shakti); and according to the Siddha Yoga Path, nothing exists that is not Shiva, God, the divine Self. In other words, in the transcendent realm of True yoga, "the Seer and the Seen are One" because Yoga, essentially, is about Union; the Oneness of Being. Everything is a form of the divine; everything in the Universe is pervaded by That sacred presence. Yoga is the disciplined practice of discovering one's own interior, divine Self. Shortly after I met Gurumayi Chidvilasananda in 1987, the practice of making and contemplating photographs became for me living, vital living form of yogic practice.
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"News of the Universe" & the "Thing, Object or Seeing Poem"
In Part I of this project I wrote about Robert Bly's book News of the Universe. In the fifth chapter of the book, entitled "The Object Poem," Bly writes about the way a good "Thing Poem" (or "Seeing Poem") somehow gets us--the serious reader or contemplator--inside the thing the poet is writing about. Bly writes about the "longing" poets often feel for the experience of "union" with the object of their perception, the object of their poem. That longing is a desire to "honor" the thing perceived and experienced with "intensity."
Bly writes in depth about the poems of the French poet Fancis Ponge who writes prose poems about things: "Something happens often during the writing" says Bly. "It is as if the object itself has links with the human psyche . . . The [poet's] unconscious passes into the object and returns. The union of the object with the pyche moves slowly, and the poem may take four or five years to write."
Ponge's book Le Parti Pris des Choses (published in 1942) was written over twenty years. The title, which means "taking the side of things" suggests, Bly explains, "that Ponge is refusing to exploit things, either as symbols or as being of a lower class. It also suggests that things themselves have opinions, or points of view. Ponge has confidence that things are fruitful and nourishing, not emptied of spirit, not inferior, not unreal." Bly writes: "[Ponge's poems remain] somewhere in the place where the senses join the object." Then Bly quotes the words of 18th century poet, philosopher and mystic known as Novalis:
"The seat of the soul is where the inner world and the outer world meet,
and where they overlap, [the soul] is in every point of the overlap."
I also want to include a passage from an essay Ponge wrote entitled "The Silent World Is Our Only Homeland" which Bly quotes in News of the Universe:
[Things] are the ambassadors of the silent world. As such, they stammer, they murmur, they sink into the darkness of logos--until at last they reach the level of ROOTS, where things and formulas are one.
I have already stated above that black space (and white space) represent for me silence: the silence, the stillness of pure consciousness which the yogic sages speak of as the divine Self, and I do identify Black or White Space in my photographs as a direct link with "the darkness of logos [in which things] reach the level of ROOTS, where things and formulas are one." (Note: my projects about MAKOM, the Place, are in direct relationship with Ponge's statement. I wrote about MAKOM in Part I of my Things In Their Place project.)
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About the Tonal Matte surrounding the 12x12" inkjet photographs
In this collection of 12x12" Thing-Centered Photographs, and all the other 12x12" inkjet prints I have made for my 2023-2024 Inkjet Print Project (including the Larger sized inkjet prints I have made) I have surrounded the image areas with tonal mattes.
(The 12x12" inkjet prints usually contain a photographic image 8"square surrounded by a tonal matte of 2" on each side. Some prints may have a smaller image size--5x5"--and others my have an image size as large as 11" square --with a 1/2" tonal surrounding matte on each side. In any case the total size of the image and the matte equals 12x12". ~ Back in 2010, when I initiated my blog, the image formats (square and rectangular) varied in size and I did not place surrounding tonal mattes around the images. And shortly after I initiated my blog I stopped making inkjet prints of the images I published in my blog project. The surrounding tonal mattes became a new addition to my images when I initiated the 2023-24 Inkjet Print Project.)
The mattes have became a real pleasure for me as began printing the 12x12" inkjet prints, in many cases images I had never printed before, and I have learned to use the matte size in relation to the image size, and the tonality of each matte and an integral strategy in presenting each of my photographs in the most articulate way. Trying to find the right tone to use around the image has become a real challenge and a new way of participating in the creative process in a refreshingly new way.
The matte tones are often total pure black; but sometimes slightly lighter than pure black so that the tonal difference become part of the image statement. For lighter toned images I have made the tonal mattes various shades of darker or lighter middle to help make the images tones within the image more visually pronounced and apparently intentional or meaningful. For total black images, my choice to make a surrounding matte a different tone--or to keep it total black--becomes a statement in itself in relation to the image. Also, there are instances in which I choose a matte tone that matches a particular tones on the edge of the image area so that where that image area and the tonal matte interface, those spaces merge into each other as if the internal space of the image becomes extended into the space of the surrounding tonal matte.
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A few final notes
Under each of the photographs published below I have indicated (in script type) an Image # and Project Title; then on the next line below I provide the Title of the image (which in most cases is descriptive rather than poetic or metaphoric). When I feel that the title does not supply enough context, I will also write additional text below the Title line in an attempt to explain something about the image or my creative process that you (the viewer) might find useful in connecting in unexpected meaningful ways with the image.
In general I usually refer to images of human beings as "figures" because for me they almost always represent humans in a universal sense rather than a particular person. When there are exceptions to this rule I will give a name and identify the person's relationship to me in the title or perhaps some added text material following the title.
I sometimes identify images as having been Inverted. That means I have used a tool in "Photoshop" that reverses the original tones that existed in a digital file or scanned silver based negative image. In "Photoshop software" I can inverse the entire image at once, or I have the option to select and then inverse just a part of an image.
Finally, if you are viewing this blog project on a desktop or laptop computer, I want to encourage you to click on each of the images which--I hope--will give you access to an alternate viewing mode in relation to my blog images. Please read the brief statement below and if you would like more technical information, click on the highlighted blog page title.
A brief note about "How to Best View My Online Blog Images"
If you are viewing this project on a desktop computer or a laptop, I encourage you to read my blog explanation regarding How to Best View My Online Blog Images. In brief, click on the images once, then once again; this will (hopefully) enlarge the image and present it in a dark tonal environment at its maximum viewing quality in terms of image sharpness, luminance, tonal gradations, etc. Once you have entered this alternate viewing space you can then use your zoom-in & zoom-out keyboard (or menu) options to adjust the image size, and darken or lighten your computer's screen brightness to suit your equipment and viewing preferences.
The Photographs
Things Suspended In Space
Part II : "Thing-Centered Photographs"
Image #1 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT Things Suspended In Space
Straw Ball (thrown through a shaft of light in a barn by some kids having fun)
This ball of light and energy is also held still, timeless in the
surrounding field of black space. I have not included a
surrounding tonal matte in this image or in the next
image. I felt the matte did not work in these
two particular photographs.
Image #2 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
An image of the United States, untapped, hanging by a string in black space
I am working on this project in September, 2024, following the first and perhaps
only debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. I made this image
many years ago, long before Trump got elected in 2016. I pray that this
image can be put to rest once the election has been finalized (God
only knows how long that might take). I seldom bring up
politics is relation to my photography, but after the
horror of January 5, 2020, and the four years that
preceded that nightmare, I cannot remain silent
on the issues before us now as I write this.
Image #2 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Bather in an ocean of light
The image above is a more graphic version of a photograph I made for my
1981-82 Lake Series project. The matte tone is the same as the figure's tone.
Image #3 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A fading photograph curling up on a window sill behind a storefront window
This Faint Photograph has something to do with The Departing Landscape.
Most things--including human beings and photographs--fade when they
become over-exposed to the light of the sun. (Note: The surrounding
matte tone was made pure white to match the border tone of the
curled photograph; I added a line around the matte to show
where the 12x12" inkjet print image with matte ends.
Image #4 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Man Walking Up Into the Light of the Sky
Note how the sky tone gets close to pure white as it nears the top edge of the matte tone.
(This image is from a project in homage to Italian sculptor and visionary Alberto
Giacometti. Click here to see the project and two other versions of this image)
Image #5 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Old, dark-gray garage with a crooked top
I consider most of the photographs in my Garage Series "Thing-centered photographs."
Each garage is also something like a "portrait" . . . perhaps of its owner? In any case
each garage image seems to reveal some essential "character" silently as it is
suspended in black space--which could be the seen as the dark of night.
Image #6 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Vine Garage
I included a matte border in this image, but its a bit smaller than a 2" border. I don't
know why, it just looked better this way to me. The border seems to add a sense
of intimacy to both the garage itself (which is covered by vines) and in relation
to the black space in which the garage is suspended.
Image #7 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Old Garage with an opening in the roof above the opened door
In this garage photograph I did not include the surrounding tonal matte
probably because of the elongated size of the garage in relation to the square.
Image #8 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Sheet on a cloths line (with a fragment of wooden fence)
Image #9 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A White extension cord
I hope you can enlarge this image so you can better see the way
the "tail" of the snake-like extension cord dissolves into the
surrounding black space in which it is suspended.
Image #10 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Suspended Christmas Tinsel
This image presents an interesting point about "Thing photographs": that is,
the question of what exactly constitutes a "thing"? Must a thing be
identified and knowable to be a successful "Thing photograph"? or
can an image reveal the essential nature of a thing without our
knowing in advance what the thing is we are perceiving?
The "suspension" here is supported by three lines that
extend to the surrounding matte which is a lighter tonality.
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Image #11 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
(negative image) Fishing pole with five eyesThis is an inversed image. The white fishing pole was originally a dark tone against
a lighter toned water background. I believe I scanned the silver gelatin negative then
used Photoshop to inverse the tones back to the negative's original tonality.
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Image #12 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Suspended construction Frame
This is another inversed image. The top line extends all the way to the edge
of the 12x12" black space (without a matte border). I like the way the
cable swinging off to the right dissolves into the black space. I think
the the fading cable adds a new unexpected dimension of space to the image.
Old ladder, suspended in space (and time) by a thin line
The perspective in this image is interesting to me. When I took the picture of the ladder
it was laying on the floor or an old warehouse and because the bottom of the ladder
was closer to the camera the other end of the ladder becomes diminished in size.
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Image #14 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Snow covered Christmas Tree laid on its side
See my story #6 (perhaps #5 & 7 as well) in my collection
of stories entitled Death Art and Writing
Image #15 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Old wooden staircase with handrails suspended in dark space
Image #16 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Projection screen (with a blemish on its surface that looks like an eye)
The title of this image relates to an essay I wrote about perception.
I invite you to visit my blog essay Seeing the Grand Canyon.
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Image #17 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Minneapolis Airport : A Men's Restroom Window
The top section of the image is blue sky with reflections in the window's glass of interior ceiling
lights. The bottom section, a sheet frosted plastic, provides privacy to travelers inside the
restroom. I like the feeling of vast space in this window image; its as if I am looking
out over an ocean and blue sky. However, the surrounding matte tone, though it
at first appears to be the interior of the bathroom, is abruptly cut off revealing
the mediated space. . . that is to say, the matte tone with which I surrounded
the image. Visit my 12x12" inkjet print Windows PROJECT
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Image #18 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Little bedroom window.
The window's screen is covered with morning mist-drops which partially blocks the
view of parts of the North meadow behind our house, and a few other houses.
Image #19 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Symmetrical Photograph : Blue Snow Angel-Wings)This is an inversed image. One of many Angel photographs. When my wife Gloria and I
traveled to Turkey in 2011 I became fascinated by Islamic Sacred Art. My reading on
the subject of sacred art led me to the writings of Henry Corbin and Tom Cheetham
who deal with Angles in a wonderful, meaningful way for me.
Image #20 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Goat shepherds resting on the side of a hill in Turkey as viewed from inside a tour bus
The blue space in the bottom part of the photograph is a shadow line
that fell over the front window of the bus.
Image #21 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A man and a woman walking away together in a vast space of white.
(Image #24 further below presents another version of this image.)
Image #22 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Family playing together in a lake of light
This is a 12x12" inkjet print version of an early miniature Studies photograph,
originally a 3.5" square silver gelatin print made in 1994-2000. Visit
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Image #23 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Grasshopper (Faint photograph)
The large scale of the faint grasshopper in white space gives this
image a surreal quality. White space has meant many different
things in my photography including the spiritual and
the dissolution of the world as we have known it.
I entitled my blog The Departing Landscape in
part because at the time I created the blog I
was deeply concerned about issues related
to Climate Change, and I continue to be
very concerned about it and the lack
of political will to deal with it.
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Image #24 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Man & A Woman walking into light
This is an enlarged out-of-focus version of Image 21 (above)
Re-vision and Transformation are ongoing themes in my continuing creative process.
Visit my Faint Photographs project
Image #25 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Dog lying on its side suspended in white space
(from my 12x12" Early Studies Photographs)
Image #26 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A coupled pair of Costa Rica Gecos on a white wall
I took this picture just as I entered the dark entrance of a bar & dinning room in Costa Rica.
I quickly aimed my camera in hopes of getting the couple on a white wall within my
camera's view . . . Surprisingly the flash on my camera went off when I clicked
the shutter, blinding me momentarily and overexposing the image. The
gecos remained still on the wall long after my eyes readjusted.
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Image #27 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
An Elephant (Silhouetted & out of focus) leaving a circus tent
I especially enjoy the way the matte tone can become merged with tones within the
photographic image it surrounds, thus becoming an integral part of the image. ~
I have used the Elephant image in several different projects: I made it into a miniature
silver print for my early Studies photographs project, and later I made an large inkjet
12x12" inkjet print, with an added surrounding matte . The matte tone is
slightly lighter than the pure black tone of the Elephant and its
surroundings. The matte creates a feeling-tone of intimacy or
empathy for the Elephant which somehow became part
of the traveling circus I visited with my kids.
Nocturne: Goldfish swimming in a pond's reflection of the starry sky above
I included this image in my "Things In Their Place" Project, Part I
of my my Thing Centered Photographs project(Image #45). The
fish is suspended in three ways here; in the water; in the starry
sky above, reflected in the water; and in the black space of
the image itself and then the way that tone merges into
its surrounding black Matte tonal-space.
Image #29 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A walking shadowed-crossed man suspended in black space
Given the many Books, PROJECTS and larger inkjet prints I have made
for my 2023-2024 Inkjet Print Project in the past twenty months I have
enjoyed discovering how some of my images have appeared in several
different 12x12" thematic PROJECTS. Clearly, any given image
can have multiple kinds (and levels) of meaning for any viewer
who contemplates an image with an open mind and heart.
I invite you to visit my blog project:
Image #30 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Fulcrum with lines in black space (an Inversed /Negative))
I sometimes add lines to the things I have photographed. I like the way the
issue of suspension is complicated by the addition of lines to the image,
lines which hold something up, lines that come from nowhere and
lead downward toward who knows what, or where, or why?
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Image #31of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Black & White Peach, and its shadow, on a sunlit table and its "leaf" line
the Thing Centered Photographs Project. I wrote:
"This image seems particularly black and white to me, in part, I think because
of the illuminated gray textural tones in the top of the peach, and in
the similar gray tones on the edges of its shadow."
This is a "Thing In Its Place" image, and yet I see the apple as a round shape suspended
in white space (the light reflected on the table). In addition, the round shape is being
suspended by two lines which, it appears, could conjoin somewhere under the apple.
There is a yogic teach this image reminds me of about the Oneness of Being:
"The Seer and the Seen are One."
Image #32 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Steamy, tearing store-front window & styrofoam cup near the back wall of an empty room
This is a Window photograph; a Thing photograph (I am thinking in particular about
the styrofoam cup in the background), and its also about the Steamy, tearing
window in the foreground. All of it is suspended in black space; and then
their are light, line-like shapes that make no sense and yet seem to want
to function as a frame, and then beyond that there is the matte tone
which is lighter than the black space within the image. ~ The
surrounding matte adds yet another dimension of space to this
already complicated photograph in the way that it seems
closer to me (as a viewer) than the steamy tearing
surface of the store front window. This is how
I see the image which I like very much.
Image #33 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A figure silently contemplating a large bush & its shadow
The shadow is white, so yes, this is an inversed (negative) image, an image that
was probably made around 1:00 pm on a sunny afternoon. The figure could
be carrying on a dialogue with the tree as well as contemplating what
it could be seeing. See my project Silent Dialogues.
Image #34 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Two photographs of Gloria, dreaming: One made while sun bathing; the other, asleep in the dark.
This may not be a thing-centered photograph, obviously because there are two things in the
picture (two heads of my wife). If both are images of someone dreaming couldn't we
allow this image to qualify as a thing-centered photograph just this one time?
Don't all things which dream together suspended in black space together
suspended in TIME
belong to the Eternal?
The Oneness of Being?
Image #35 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Figure on a ladder suspended in black space, suspended in Time
Is the figure climbing upward, or downward?
Is he moving at all?
Suspension in space Must (I think) be suspension in Time.
This is an inversed (negative) image, with a surrounding matte which seems
to place the man on the ladder deeper in space, further away in Time.
Image #33 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Vertical Thought of Stack of rings
This image is part of a multi-chaptered project titled Triadic Memories, and one of the sub-
chapters is titled "Vertical Thoughts". These two titles belong to American composer
Morton Feldman. His music, his titles, his ideas inspired this image and the two
Vertical Thoughts images that follow. Visit my project Triadic Memories
Image #34 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Vertical Thought: "A Walking shadow-crossed man" suspended in black space
(an inversed / flipflopped / negative image)
Although the man appears to be walking down, he also appears to be walking in another
direction, but I don't know how to say it.
(See Image 29, above)
Image #35 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
"Vertical Thought: Falling Tombstones"
I know this image was also influenced by the 9/11 Attack and in particular the stories
and images I have seen of the people trapped in the fiery towers who jumped or fell to their deaths.
The stone has been tonally, realistically rendered, here, and yet the surrounding
black space may suggest that the rotating stone image may have been inversed.
There have been some images I have inversed which have given me the
impression or feeling that the image has been "turned inside out."
Though this image has not been inversed it gives me that
inside-out feeling. I don't expect you to agree with me.
Everyone is free to see, interpret according to their
capacities and personalities. Don't ever let an
artist tell you what their art means. That's up to you.
Image #36 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Old Man in an overcoat and hat walking away in the dark
This inversed /negative image was made in the mid 1960's when I was a student
at RIT in Rochester, NY. Much of my early work was influenced by the
book Dialogues with Solitude, photographs by Dave Heath
Image #37 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Man in a suit and hat walking away
Negative images are not necessarily negative in meaning. In many
of my inversed / negative images the light that is released by the technique
is startlingly and palpably and internally radiantly alive. I have several images
in which figures are walking away. The represent the idea of the Departing Landscape
which is the title I gave my photography blog influenced by Morton Feldman and the threat
of hydrofraking for gas and oil in New York State when Gloria first moved here. The figures walking
away represent for me--among other things--all the denials and lack of political will regarding Climate Change.
Image #38 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Boy, bat & ball suspended in blinding light
When I took this photograph, the boy was playing in an alley and the glare of sunlight was behind
him. In that instantaneous moment--when I took the picture just as he was about to hit the ball--
everything flashed white. It was a mystical experience as far as I am concerned. This image
comes close to representing what I experienced in that decisive moment when everything
surrounding the boy turned into blinding light.
Image #39 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Boy, bat & ball suspended in black space, suspended in Time (inversed version)
There is a dark matte surrounding this image. It would be more visible if you could
click on the image twice and view the image in the blog's alternate viewing mode.
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Image #40 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A woman's hand, wristwatch & a glass of illuminated iced lemonade in black space
Image #41 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Hammer in a shadowed saw-shaped puddle reflection of the sky
This image was also included in my previous project Things In Their Place.
The presence of the puddle and the sense of light coming from the sky reflected
in the puddle does provide the hammer (and the saw shaped reflection) a sense of place,
for me, however the sense of place dissolves for me into the surrounding black space
and that perhaps is why I did not surround the image with a tonal matte.
An opened letter on a sunlit picnic bench and a constellation of illuminated nailheads
At first I considered this image for my Things In Their Place project, but the feeling
of the letter being suspended in space seemed more dominant to me, especially
in the way the bench dissolves into dark space under the bottom of the letter.
I enjoy the visual play between the dark holes in the side of the paper and
light reflecting constellation of nail heads just above the top left corner
of the four-folded letter.
Image #43 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A roll of toilet paper
The bottom of the toilet is missing in this image; it has been replaced by
the black space of the border-matte tone which is the same tone as the
hole in the roll of paper: infinite black space
Image #44 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Cloths-pin bucket, cloths-line poles, out-lines of a house and a window suspended in white space
This image is from my 1978-80 Negative Print Series subtitled Memories from Childhood.
I found a large box of snapshots in a small closet in my mom's house trailer.
The images that attracted me most were the light toned (washed out)
photos of sheets hanging on the cloths lines in our back yard, in
Piqua, Ohio. Before my dad died (when I was nearly10 years
old) my mom was living the American Dream. And my
childhood memories were wonderful. The white space
in this series generally represents the clean sheets,
the bliss of my childhood, and its divine presence
(which I feel much more more now than I did then).
Image #45 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
South Meadow : Snow, snow-covered woods, Sky
Image #46 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
North Meadow : Snow, snow-covered woods, Sky
Visit my12x12" Meadow Photographs Project
Image #47 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Field of Illuminated Dew Drops (on spider webs) in black space
See my 1974 / 2010 project In the Woods
Image #48 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Solarized Leaf Collage (made with leaves and 4x5" negatives of leaves)
Solarization is a chemical & light transforming process used in black and white silver gelatin
printing which, in certain tonal situations, can create a reversal of tones in the image.
This image, plus the one above and the one to follow, are 2010 digitized versions
of the original 1974 silver prints I made for the Georgia Woods project.
In 2010 I retitled the digital version of the project In the Woods
in homage to the painter Charles Burchfield.
Image #49 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
The watchful eye of a primordial Bird
In the Woods project
Image #50 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
View of the Hudson River from the Bear Mountain Bridge
This image is the concluding image from my Hudson River Valley Project.
It is also one of my favorite images from my collection of
Faint Photographs (for the Departing Landscape).
Image #51 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Looking up at a net-less basketball hoop with an automobile tire thrown upon it
See my 1994-2000 Studies Projects
Image #52 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Symmetrical Photograph (paper plate & plant shadows with a surrounding tonal matte
(Note: my next 3rd Thing Centered project will focus on Symmetrical Images)
Image #53 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
"Demeter's Dream" from my project The Persephone Series
In her dreaming of Persephone, Demeter merges into the darkness of the underworld
Image #54 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Persephone being held captive in the Underworld by Hades
Image #55 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Persephone, sitting by the dark waters of the Underworld
(This image is surrounded by a matte tone that is identical with the water tone inside the image,
thus they merge into each other. Persephone, though unhappy, glows with a pure interior
luminosity that makes her appear suspended in the darkness of the underworld.)
Visit my blog version of The Persephone Series
Image #56 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A white outlined hooded figure, a line & the hooded figure's shadow
This image is from my 1994-2000 Studies Project. Originally the image was a 3.5" square
silver print. I used a paper mask to hold back the light from the printing paper inside
the figure on the left. The mask left a drawing-like line around the white
shape of the figure. I scanned the miniature silver print and then used
the digital file to produce the 12x12" inkjet print versions.
Image #57 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Bather in the Wisconsin River
This image, from my Family Life project, was made several weeks after I had a "near-death"
experience in the Wisconsin River. When I photographed a friend bathing in the river
several weeks later I knew I was making the photograph because of what I had
experienced earlier. ~ I later used the image (printed 3.5" square) in my
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Image #58 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
Telephone pole in a foggy field near Portland, Indiana
This is for me a haunting image; it invokes deep personal feelings which take me
back to my high school days, when all I wanted was to leave Portland as
soon as possible and study photography in college. Back then I had
no sense of the sacredness of the place in which I had been living.
Image #59 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A white / black Swan swimming in light with a diamond suspended in black space above it
Half of the 8" image area was inversed tonally and then surrounded by a matte tone
that matched the sky tone behind and above the white half of the swan.
Image #60 of the 12x12" inkjet PROJECT : Things Suspended In Space
A Man--standing in a red-lined dark-gray box--looking through a suspended ring
The ring reminds me of a mirror we have which Gloria got after her parents died.
So many of the images I used for this kind of narrative-leaning imagery (a man
contemplating his life as he looks through a hoop into the world of death)
were photographs I had made when I was in college (1964-68).
These "visual poems" often like cartoons, to me. The tonal
lightness of the man is from my having inversed the
digitized image thus returning the man to
his original silver negative tonality.
*
This project was first announced on
my bog's Welcome Page on
September 20, 2024
Related Blog Project Links
Things In Their Place Part I of the 12x12 inkjet PROJECT "Thing Centered Photographs September, 2024
(Watch for Part III of the 12x12" inkjet print Thing-Centered Photographs PROJECT:
"Symmetrical Thing-Centered Photographs"
How to Best View My Online Blog Images with your desktop or laptop computer.
MAKOM, the Place (the earlier blog project)
Please visit the Welcome Page to my blog The Departing Landscape. It includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating from the most recent to those dating back to the 1960's. You will also find on the Welcome Page my resume, contact information . . . and much more.
