Color My World

I have this ongoing struggle @ Flickr, between what I want to post and what people want to see. I have a different idea of the sorts of things I like to photograph, and viewers want to see Detroit in ruins. The irony is that I chose to shoot Detroit when I first reemerged into photography when the digital revolution began for me back in 2003, needing something other than my stock cemetery pictures to post in the newly formed Deviant Art. It sure was exciting back then. I wanted something exciting to contribute to the site and one bitterly cold New Years Day mourning before 8 AM, I head into the city for the first time in years. What I found there blew me away, sights I was totally unprepared to witness. If you are reading this, you’ve probably seen my photos. At first I thought I hit a little pocket of destruction but as time passed and I probed deeper into the bowels of the city, I found pretty much the same condition everywhere. Well, sort of. There are pockets of nice areas in the city, but I do not photograph there because it doesn’t tell the story I want to share.

So, Detroit was just subject matter at first. I grew up in Detroit and still feel a strong link/draw to/from the city.

Detroit is only part of my gallery. I have hundreds, thousands of never posted pictures. Images that I occasionally drop into my gallery to lukewarm response.

Post what I like. No. My public gallery is for you, not for me. I know what I have and can look at my stuff whenever I want. I try to post images that you will find interesting.

Okay. I’m not a great photographer. My camera isn’t magic. I do take some good photos, but I’m definitely not in the league of the photo gods. I don’t want to be. Photography is fun for me, a creative outlet, filling the gap of time between now and when Death comes knocking at my door.

At the moment (and actually for many moments in the past) I am drawn to vernacular color photography. Color gets a bad rap, like only good photos are in black and white, or something like that. But color is so strong in our world and I like it, the dimensions it adds. For form and impact, black and white works. It’s old school and it is time to move on. Back when ‘art’ photography was defined by a lack of color, color film technology was primitive and colors were unstable. Color My World.

I’m in ‘stuck’ mode right now and desperately trying to dig my way out. Out come the books. I have a decent collection of photo monographs by many of my favorite shooters…Walker Evans of course, Diane Arbis, Winnogrand, Friedlander, Frank, Cartier-Bresson, Kertesz, Mary Ellen Marks, Sally Mann, etc. And then there are the colorful ones, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Joel Meyerowitz, Joel Sternfeld, Jeff Wall, etc. At the moment, I’m enraptured by the photos of William Eggleston again. I picked up a video about him recently and it reignited the fire. I don’t know why I like his photos so much, but they draw me in. It’s the color, the banality of the subject matter, little pieces of the real life that we all live. Maybe I like him because when I view his work , I give myself permission to go out and shoot just about anything, with no regards for the outcome. Eggleston sets me free.

And that’s where I’m at right now, painting/photographing by color. When I’m on the picture prowl, sometimes designs catch my eye, or non sequitur situations, and often, it’s the color that pulls my attention to something I want to shoot.

The sad truth just might be that my photography is banal and the only thing that sets off my stuff is where I shoot, as in Detroit. I’m betting I’ll be back in the city, probably sooner than later. But for now I’m feeling colorful. I have many unpublished Detroit pictures in my archives that I will be pulling up, so hopefully I can keep enough people interested in my flow to maintain an interest in sharing it with you.