I have been a working photojournalist since 1974 and earned my degree in photojournalism (Communications/Photography) at Cal State University, Fullerton in 1986. I worked at several newspapers in Southern California including the South County offices of the Orange County Register.
I have always loved gathering images of the world around me and sharing them with others. It has always been difficult to say why shooting images is so much fun, so rewarding. Then one day while listening to “This I Believe” on NPR radio, I heard Rick Moody say in his essay, The Joy and Enthusiasm of Reading, “…High school was followed by college, where I read Umberto Eco’s Role of the Reader, in which it is said that the reader completes the text, that the text is never finished until it meets this voracious and engaged reader…” At that moment I realized that photography is like that for me. Unseen images are like the latent image – what is soon to be old fashioned – on film waiting to be dunked in the various chemicals and then revealed in the light. The true image is revealed when it is shared in witness with others.
When you see these images you make them complete. Look, think and remember these images…
12.23.08
Ian’s bday today! He’s 22…swiftly, very swiftly
There’s been lots going on these past few months
Check out this link to AntiDull.com, http://www.antidull.com/issue5/issue5.swf
They used one of my images, but you’re going to have to “flip” through the pages to find it…enjoy!
9.29.09
Venus has another name. It is not used anymore…at least not by anyone I have ever heard. It has also been called Lucifer. Lately I have seen Lucifer rising up in the morning sky and watched it watching me. Interesting.
Why is it that a photojournalist (or anyone for that matter) who is new to a place can see things that someone who has been there a long time does not see? Maybe it’s choosing to turn a blind eye…perhaps it’s just being too busy to stop or at least slow down enough to see…jaded eyes unable to see…? I suppose there could be many more things to consider about that. What I am really wondering tho is how can I change so that I can see the stories that are in my own back yard? I know they are there. I want to find them, learn about them, photograph them and tell others about them. If I do a good job maybe others will learn to look, think and remember too. I’d like that.
now for something that seems a little more random…
2.6.10
What is “it” that makes an image something you can not take your eyes off of? I don’t know…exactly. I know “it” when I see “it”…and you probably do too. “It” is in a magic moment…an expression of emotion, the perfect light, an action frozen…this and more creates that “it” in an image. Sometimes you have perfect scientific control…other times all is completely chaotic and orderless. Yet in these two extremes…and everywhere in between…”it” lives.
Lucifer falling into twilight… “For the past several months, dazzling Venus has been prominent in our morning sky. During this month, however, the planet will slowly fall back toward the Sun and will sink deeper into the twilight each consecutive morning.” from nightskyinfo.com
