Growing a project and a garden.

#017

It’s that time of year when I find myself longing to drive around and explore with the windows down. No radio playing. The smell of honeysuckle in the air. Not in a hurry. Turning around. Slowing down. Not just seeing a place, but feeling a place. Knowing there’s a picture just around the next curve and being just fine if there isn’t.

I’m slowly beginning to develop a project which has led me to making more pictures in the last couple of weeks than I might’ve made all last year. I was talking with some coworkers yesterday and explaining that it doesn’t even matter right now if they’re good pictures, it’s that I’m making the effort to make pictures (with something other than my iPhone) on a regular basis.

I’m figuring out my process as I go. I find that not reviewing the images right away gives them some room to breathe and gives my mind some time to distance itself from what I saw or what I thought I saw. Revisiting them days later, I think I’m finding some clarity and learning to trust my vision. I’m also being intentional about printing more photographs and spending time with prints.

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A few years ago, I got an email inquiring about purchasing a print of the image above of a train trestle on the Tug River on the Kentucky/West Virginia border. I arranged a call with the couple from Knoxville, Tennessee, and they explained their appreciation of the photograph and their interest in making it a focal point of their living room. They were incredibly kind folks and we ended up making an approximately 36 x 50 inch print. They were very happy with the end result and shared the photo below of it hanging in their space.

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I’m reading the work of West Virginia poet Irene McKinney.
I’m listening to Vern Gosdin.
We’re seriously considering cancelling nearly all of our TV subscriptions.

The garden is coming along. The other morning, this doe and I reminded each other of our agreement that she has unfettered access to the bird feeders in exchange for staying out the garden. So far, so good.

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I also, ahem, sell prints. Feel free to get in touch if you’d like to talk more about that.

Roger