Edward Hopper in a Box

Finally, after three days of folly with Fed-Ex, trying to get my precious package...my Fuji HS10 is home. They replaced the LCD screen (it was cutting out when I tilted the camera) and hopefully is ready for action.

So now what?

I'm so out of shooting mode, I don't know where to start. My enthusiasm must have gone south for the winter. And on top of it, my life has gotten in the way. There is just so much going on, so much that siphons my energy away from what I used to do, and love most: taking pictures. On top of it, the weather is not exactly cooperating, with another grey day.

Actually, I like grey days and sometimes use them to my advantage for the types of photos I like to shoot. I have been thinking about what kind of photos I like to shoot and the painter Edward Hopper comes to mind. I am not all that familiar with his work (though I do have a bargain book about him, illustrated with a number of his paintings) and haven't been successful in delving into his life (biography), even the brief accounting in the book. As I survey his work, though, I feel a sympathetic vibration with what he painted. Over the years I have had a few comments about my photos to the effect that some of my shots have a Hopper-esque look. I agree. I like that look.

That look...is hard to capture with spontaneous candid photography, capturing people with their guard down, lost inside their thoughts, oblivious to the outside. Those are the people I see in Hopper's paintings. I unconsciously try to achieve that feeling without the people. I do note that Hopper did quite a few landscapes and images sans people. Short of hiring a model to pretend, it would damn hard to get the shot. Painting this image seems easier (assuming one has the skills to paint) because the painter/drawer/etcher has more control of the subject matter, the objects in the painting/drawing/etching and in fact can conjure ANYTHING

I would think I'd love to sit down with Hopper and have a cup of coffee. And yet, I don't think we'd have that much to say to one another.

We all live in two worlds, that of the outside and interacting with others and the environment, and our rich inner lives, a swirl of thoughts, feelings, and impulses.

Detroit sometimes looks like a Hopper painting, but with added decay and neglect. There is this common theme of alienation, something I am very familiar with in my own life as I have been walking to a different cadence than those around me all my life. For my early years, it was very uncomfortable, feeling out of step, but as I had a chance to explore my thoughts and feelings, I grew to cherish this feeling of independence, of not just going with the flow. Regarding alienation, inner alienation is the dangerous one and not where I roam.

Writing all this about Hopper is inspiring me, and now I want to know more about the man, about his life. I can start with the book I have and perhaps I'll find a flash of inspiration that will translate into photographic images.

Thanks.