america

For about the third time in the past few months, I've started re-doing my web site. The previous couple of efforts died, because I just wasn't happy with the direction it was going. This latest effort is surviving so far, although I've still got plenty of work to do.

One of the dilemmas is always how to group the images. Usually I do it by concept, but this time I'm simplifying, just doing major subject groupings... portraits, nudes... and that's where I'd hit the latest snag.

I do a lot of street photography. I do a lot of cityscapes. I do a lot of natural landscapes, or at least mostly natural. Increasingly, I've not cropped out the signs of humanity, and sometimes I've made them the central element of the composition.

About 15 minutes ago, while doing a little minimal photoshop on the image above, I realized that it's impossible, at least for me, at least right now, to split those categories. They simply overlap too much.

As I've traveled across America on all these business and personal trips, I've looked at the beauty, the ugliness, the contradictions. I've thought about what de Toqueville wrote about this country, and what those who followed in his footsteps wrote. And I've documented.

The image above is of something I found last summer in Eagleville, California, on the return drive from Burning Man. It's a place of sharp transition. Look to the east, and see the browns and tans and grays of the desert, with Nevada literally visible about two miles away. Look north and south, see verdant green, where springs issue from the mountains and feed lush wetlands and an elongated, narrow strip of green pastureland. Look west, and cedar-covered mountains rise quickly to nearly 6,000 feet. And in this place, an abandoned lot, shadowy memories of games and laughter past.

I'll work on this particular gallery of images over the weekend, I've only chosen the first three so far but there a lot more to work with. If there aren't too many distractions, hopefully I'll get this selective tour of the national psyche uploaded before long.