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“Punctum” said Anna. Meaning a word coined by Roland Barthes that says the image hits you like a thump in the chest. You really don’t need to know what the picture is of or why the button was pushed. Verbal description doesn’t add much. This is the image that drove the title of this book and the little ditty on page three.
CISTERN, NORTHERN MOUNTAIN MONASTERY, BURMA, 2014
BEDSPRINGS, NORTH DAKOTA, 2013
I am not sure what was going to happen next. I have a bad feeling that it was going to be a protest, but that wasn’t in the mood at this village. A few young girls were just finishing these signs as I arrived. Other villages were having religious welcoming ceremonies so I am going to assume that it was a good thing.
SMALL VILLAGE FAR OUTSIDE MANDALAY, BURMA, 2014
Yes, I helped the arrangement, but only a little bit. In my mind, I see this range filled with food steaming away on a cold, mountain mining town, morning. I literally can smell the eggs, bacon, bread, grease, and coffee.
GARNET, MONTANA, 2011
This is the third half-lit coffee pot in my collection. I wonder what’s bubbling in the back of my mind.
GARNET, MONTANA, 2011
Originally, I was disappointed in this picture. In reality, it was more three dimensional, esepecially in the stone itself. The lack of depth made the geometrics more pronounced and competing with itself. Then one of those fun creative things happened. See next plate.
WAT PHRA KAEW, BANGKOK, THAILAND, 2014
The design team paired it with what we had affectionately called the “running shmoos.” All of a sudden the whole dynamic changed. The stones became animated and kinetic. The shmoos had a purpose other than running away.
GARDNES NEAR ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND, 2011
The side of a barn. I did an Ansel Adams on this. Nothing photographic, but rather climbed up on the roof my truck to get the angle right.
RUGBY, NORTH DAKOTA, 2013
I have had this image for many years. I kept waiting for something to pair it with. Like the barn side, it presented something of a physical challenge. This is the dome of a chapel so it was straight up. Any angle and the lines changed. I also had a view finder camera so I had to lie on the floor exactly under the eye piece.
MISSION TRAIL, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, 2009 (?)
Yuck. Those are indeed flies. The planes are a little confusing since there is also a screen and a window. The camera is horizontal but the window frame is not plumb. Be sure to read my notes on North Dakota in the introduction.
RUGBY, NORTH DAKOTA, 2013
I hope I give no offense with this one. I am commenting not on religious beliefs but rather on the institutions or manifestation of belief. I can’t get my mind around the thought of celebrating Jesus by putting him in a box in a dingy, dark church with two neon lights.
MISSION TRAIL, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, 2011
What a wonderful spot this is. A very different feel from that of the mission church. The priority dates back to the 1500’s. The smallish chapel where this picture was made is in good shape…beautiful and classic. The outside is crumbling walls and spires of abandoned churches. The day I was there they were producing Faure’s Requiem in the church. The music played off the stone walls and spilled out to the courtyards. Please note the ghost that waved hello.
LINDISFARNE PRIORY, HOLLY ISLAND, SCOTLAND, 2012
Hopefully you’ve read the introduction about North Dakota. I see an old lady, in bad health, sitting in the chair, looking out the window and waiting to die.
RUGBY, NORTH DAKOTA, 2013
The basic necessities.
GARNET, MONTANA, 2011
A LOVELY GARDEN AND A WONDERFUL TREE. This was a very difficult picture. I want the tree to stand out more and move. I will definitely take this image again. I shudder to think it but this might be one that needs color.
KONCHI-IN, KYOTO, 2014
No words for this one. It says all I want to say.
KYOTO, 2014
Yes, there is evil. Sometimes it is so overwhelming that it has mass, odor, color, and vibrates.
BUCHENWALD, GERMANY/POLAND, 2012
Luckily for me I get to make the final decisions in this book. Nobody was particularly pumped about this image but…
HONEN-IN, KYOTO, 2014
So I had a new camera and this was the first outing. I came on this scene. I liked it but I knew it presented challenges for exposure. I set the camera on auto, composed, and pushed the button. Not much “new” these days is really an improvement, but I fear that this camera is an exception.
RUGBY, NORTH DAKOTA, 2013
Everardo said it well. “ this is depressing and beautiful at the same time.”
RUGBY, NORTH DAKOTA, 2013
Mark spent a lot of time describing the visual aspects of Shinto vs Buddhism/Zen. This is my visual definition of Shinto.
SHINBOKU, KYOTO, 2014
Photography like other art forms has lots of rules. One rule is not to center weight the composition. Photoshop even supplies an overlay grid so you can see the various sections.
MISSION TRAIL, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, 2011
In So Far So Good Plate 12, I did this picture from the other perspective. I am not sure which one I like the best. The window makes it work, but then again so does the full window before. You tell me.
BANNACK, MONTANA, 2012
Time for a little levity.
MISSION TRAIL, SAN ANTONIO, 2012
One of my favorites and one that should please Diana. I see this a s a very full and busy room. People are eating, drinking, and playing cards. It is loud and smoky. On this floor and above, lots of people are being separated from their gold.
GARNET, MONTANA, 2011
A postcard? I have had lots of advice about this one. No one is particularly enthusiastic. Yet I like it.
BANNACK, MONTANA, 2011
Here’s the fun: each level of the horizon is very different and progresses from the lower level. We start with the edge of the lake which is home to many people of different economic strata starting with the ones in the shacks of level two and ending with weavers who sell their goods for $400 a meter.
Next we come to the swamps which border the lake and end in the next level of trees. The BANG Shangri La/Disney pops out of nowhere and abruptly ends. We continue with the unpopulated forest.
LAKE INLE, BURMA, 2014
The prairie is very flat here. It just goes on and on. It is no wonder that lives an march seamlessly off the horizon and not find their way back.
RUGBY, NORTH DAKOTA, 2013
It is sunrise. You’ve missed the action. From left to right a group of monks have just passed with their bowls. From right to left Rudyard Kipling, George Orwell, Somerset Maugham, and Joseph Conrad weaved and staggered home after a good night.
OUTSIDE MANDALAY, BURMA, 2014
This image has a long history. The first one was made about ten years ago. I worked very hard to get the light and angles correct. When I got the proof sheets I was delighted. When I got the final print I learned that it was actually blurred because the tripod shook. It became known as “ah shit.” Tillman did a great job fixing it in photoshop but I was never completely happy. Seven years later I went back and retook the picture.
ST ANDREW’S CHURCH, KIRKWALL, ORKNEY, 2011
Echoes of Kirkwall in Bagan. I am not exactly sure when built but very roughly the same time, these two arches in two religious buildings on opposite sides of the world play on each other. Burma’s was older than Scotland. So much for multiculturalism.
TEMPLE OUTSIDE GEBAN, BURMA, 2014
This is a riff on plate 41 to come. We decided to play against the windows on the right instead of 41. It is also part of my attempt to have one at least surrealistic image in each book.
RUGBY, NORTH DAKOTA, 2013
See notes on plate 32. Do you think we should have used 41 here?
RUGBY, NORTH DAKOTA, 2013
Think The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
U BEIN, BURMA, 2014
Think Pet Cemetery by Steven King.
LOWENBAUM’S, FLATHEAD LAKE, MONTANA, 2009 (?)
Some great photographer said "If the picture is not good enough, get closer." So I did.
LAKE INLE, BURMA, 201
Fish drying ...North Sea.
ORKNEY, SCOTLAND, 2007
Fish drying ...North Sea.
RESTORED FISHING VILLAGE, NETHERLANDS, 2010
"Fresh Fish" ...don't miss the handle ...only the Dutch could make this door.
The end of a four-part harmony on fish.:)
RESTORED FISHING VILLAGE, NETHERLANDS, 2010
This picture was taken outside an artist's studio on a pretty little side street. We were still at the beginning of the trip so we really related to the work.
GODDESS OF JETLAG, KYOTO, 2014
See comment Plate 32. The bright spot in back is a blackboard. You are looking through someone's front room/kitchen to the back of the house.
I find this rather spooky.
BANNACK, MONTANA, 2010
This is one of my favorites. It is the upper pews of a church. The light is heavenly.
ORKNEY, SCOTLAND, 2009
What I appreciate about this picture are the different textures and surfaces compounded by the light falling off from the right to the left. The very traditional paper window contrasts so well with the rustic bamboo/straw window. The curvy rough wooden pillar with the modern clean geometry of the paper window. Horizontals, verticals, curves. So much in one picture, yet so simple.
GENERAL'S TEA GARDEN, KOTO-IN, KYOTO, 2014
Like Plate 16 this doesn't need words.
MOSS GARDEN, KYOTO, 2014
About this and the next one I could easily babble like a bad tour guide. This is on the spectacular events/places to see. Ewen took us out while it was still very dark. I had no idea what was going to happen. We climbed up a very steep set of steps and proceeded to stare to the east. Slowly, very slowly, the far mountains and sky took shape. Like a photo in the bath the mid-ground and foreground developed until I realised we were in a giant plain of temples. Just as my heart and visual brain started to get used to the information along came the balloons.
BAGAN, BURMA, 2014
Next day. Same time. Very close to the same place. Now I knew what to expect so I could watch better. South of our spot was a larger temple. It loomed massive and alien even though it was one of us. It dominated the space and started to feel menacing.
BAGAN, BURMA, 2014
I woke up around 04:00 and looked out the bedroom window. I started assembling my gear which been put away for the night. I knew this picture wasn't going to last. There was no way I was going to carefully meter this scene so I grabbed the hand metere, confirmed the camera and wildly bracketed. If you stud this picture, there will seem to be something wrong. There are two light sources. The moon is directly across the LAke and the sun is rising in the east.
TORRES DEL PAINE, PATAGONIA, CHILE, 2009
Boats at rest near the market on Lake Inle. Maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but the market was mainly for tourists. It was one of the very few non-native markets that we saw. I fear that in a few years there will be many more of these markets. The positive side is that most of the stuff was authentic and very reasonably priced IF you negotiated hard.
LAKE INLE, BURMA, 2014
Folks, this picture was a bear. (Actually it is a dragon.) It probably wouldn't have made the selections for this book if it didn't go so well with the boats on the left. This is a part of the most famous dry, or rock, garden in Japan. As this picture is taken the garden runs from left to right. There are numerous rocks that I am not showing you. Tillman and I got there the moment it opened so we were not hampered by crowds. I shot many many pictures and only a few turned out worthwhile. This is a very perplexing place to work in and I suspect that the monks who laid it wanted it just that way.
RYOGEN-IN, KYOTO, 2014
Some day I am going to assemble all my images of "looking through." It does seem a theme for me. Elena and I saw this fort/castle on the last afternoon of our visit and it was too crowded. I got up early the next morning, took a taxi, and paid a special "early access" gratuity to the guard.
LISBON, PORTUGAL, 2007
My Burmese "floating pagoda." It is sunrise. My oarsman and I floated quietly back and forth trying to get the just-right image. Even at sunrise there was a lot of traffic so some pictures didn't work. Others were pretty but didn't rise above postcards. Finally the rising sun hit the "altar" portion where the gifts to the lake were placed. Bingo.
LAKE INLE, BURMA, 2014
With this special shot the book ends. I think like Plate 1 it doesn't need words. Again it isn't really important what it is. Does the flame say sayonara, hope/life, expectation, or please come back my friend.
NANZENJI TEMPLE, KYOTO, 2014