Day 26

I'd like to choose 10 photos that I'd blow up to 12x14, but the problem is one knows that there will always be another one right after that will be better, so it's hard to make choices. In someways I believe the photos with the edges are the ones to choose, well you could argue they all have edges, so the question is can I be more precise about what it is in a photo that makes it good for me.

I think there are 2 kinds of photos and poems that speak to me. One is a narrative photo, a photo that tells a story far greater than it's parts. The other is one of presentation, one that presents a singular item clearly and beautifully or poignantly.

This morning I took a picture of a single piece of ice forming on black top; white and grey facets on black bumpy background. It works as the later.



I also took a photo on Main St at 4 with sun glowing buildings and church steeples sparkling in the back and traffic backed up in the foreground. This may be an example of the former. It tells a story of a middle class town, a working class town. Traffic at 4, American Flags and church steeple on Main St., USA.

I love my long narrative poems that describe the harsh realities mixed with the glories of my life. But I am confident of those singular descriptions. I am confident in the simplicity. It gets rockier for me when I attempt complex comparisons. But I'll continue to try to write and photograph those long narrative stories.



My forsythia bush is so fascinating at the moment. In the fall, Geoff and i cut it back and cleared it of its invasive vines. So now it is bare and you can see how the thick sections have grown in braids along each other, twisting, they make up such beautiful curves, lovely beiges and greys twisted. On Sunday I was really looking at it and it reminded me of the nude woman wooden sculpture in my garage which Patrick did when he was a student at the Students' Art League in NYC, so I went and opened my garage door and photographed her back in the corner near piles of junk. I put a picture of her and a picture of forsythia wood together on my photo stream to illustrate the connection on the question, does the wood speak to the sculptor and help to determine the eventuality of the sculpture? Can a photographer show that after the fact from 2 random items? Or is it too complicated, too abstract?