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A Vague Feeling Feb-12, 2006 03:14pm
Susan Sontag quoted Ansel Adams as saying that a photograph is,

"...a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety. "

My photographs were not taken with anything in mind beyond that what I was seeing was interesting. There was a vague feeling though; one of wonder. And as I wondered about the wonder of what I was seeing, I also wondered what the camera would see.

As I walked through the woods I generally wanted the camera to document what I was seeing.

My photographs of the woods were rarely the same as what my eyes had seen.

Cape Cod woods are a tangle of trees mostly, which the camera can not quite capture correctly it seemed.


What looked interesting to me looked less so to the camera.

But color and form on the ground sticks out amidst the blends of forest floor, and kept attracting my gaze.

Reds, whites, and yellows, rounds on top of stalks, were obvious choices for the camera.


So, when I came upon a stream I was already looking down, thinking of color and form.

Within the water I saw memories of childhood — larvae and tadpoles swimming above decaying leaves. Waterbugs on the surface caught my eye.

Then I noticed that with one eye closed the water looked different.


But it was not, then, the water that I was seeing. It was the water's surface.

Through one eye I saw the surface refections — the sky and trees. And the wind too could be seen as it touched the water's surface, bending and warping what was seen.

All at once I was seeing the above, the surface and the below.


With one less eye I saw more than I ever had.
You can find more of my photography here: Nature as Art