Site Note

When navigating this site, arrow keys can be used to move between portfolio thumbnail pages and between individual images.

This site's domain, blackbird13.com, is named after the poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens. The poem is a constant reminder to me that the world is inexhaustible; there is always another way to see it. Whenever I feel stuck in my work I re-read the poem. Here is a link to the poem:

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/stevens-13ways.html

Words

For those who like to hear an artist talk I have a few words about my work. Everyone else should go directly to the portfolios.

On the Absence of People

Rodin once created a sculpture without a head. When asked “Where is it?” he replied “The head is everywhere.” I feel the same about my photographs without people — people are diffused throughout them. The hand of man is everywhere.

The Vernacular Landscape

Branding reduces the variety of our landscapes and the variety in our minds. Vernacular architecture, individualized homes, the unexpected, humorous, and mysterious experiences of daily life are the antidote. The hardest project I ever shot was the Suburban Edges portfolio. The branded developments had designed out all the delightful idiosyncrasies of a vernacular world.

The Water Towers — A Vernacular Example

There is nothing quite like water towers in our urban landscape, sleek, curvaceous. unadorned presences (except for the ever growing incrustation of cell phone antennas). Water towers have noble forms; the best of them are lovely still lifes in and of themselves, playing magnificently with sky and light.

Often the first sign of a town — visible miles before the town is reached — is its water tower. Once you begin to notice them you realize that the next water tower is always just around the corner.

On Stopping at the Side of the Road

When my photography works, it connects me with a sensuous, detailed, site-specific world. To succeed in photography I have to allow myself the time and space to connect. I have spent much of my life hurrying to get somewhere instead of being where I was. Learning to stop wherever I felt the possibility that I could do my work was essential for my development as a photographer. This site is a record of many of the times I managed to stop.