Postcards from the Creative Journey

The Importance of Taking a Chance

The Hastings Building, Port Townsend, Washington

Our last stop on the way out of Port Townsend was a bookstore so I could purchase an Edward Weston book. While patiently waiting at the curb, Brooks Jensen spied a lovely Victorian building on the corner of Water and Taylor Streets. On a hunch, Brooks went into the first floor clothing store and asked if we could photograph the upper floors of the building. Brooks emerged with the landlord’s phone number and called it from a bench outside the building.

Later that day while photographing Neah Bay, the landlord called back. She invited us to photograph the building with the proviso that she could use the photographs to help gain funding to help restore the historically important building. In my haste and excitement to return to Port Townsend, I accidentally deleted the entire morning’s photographic efforts. There is no doubt in my mind some of the greatest images ever made in the history of photography were deleted that morning. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

We returned to Port Townsend and photographed the inside of the Hastings Building for three days.

Two things that helped us most in gaining access to this historic building was asking permission to photograph the building. Without asking we wouldn’t have access to make the photographs. After asking, the second help was having web sites that clearly demonstrated that we were capable of producing excellent photographs. Coupling those two important things with our willingness to help the landlord sealed the deal. Helping other people through your photography is a good way to get the opportunity to photograph special places. 

Abandoned, Not Empty

Abandoned House, Alkabo, North Dakota

There is a difference between abandoned and empty. The difference as I see (and photograph) is hope. Abandoned means no one will come back. Empty means there is no one here right now. I don’t like abandoned. When we were in Alkabo, North Dakota I had an opportunity to photograph the interior of an abandoned house. I made a photograph of the outside of the house to “set the scene.” Then I headed inside.

About forty years earlier an immigrant bachelor died suddenly. No one knew his next of kin and there was no family. The town buried him and just closed the door to his house. The door was still unlocked on the day we were there. Upon entering, we were transported back to the day he died. Clothes hung in the closet, unopened mail sat on the desk and magazines lay on a table. This place was abandoned. I could not photograph in this place. This photograph set the scene for a project that never happened. 

Not Here Right Now

Carpenter Feed Store, Carpenter, North Carolina

I am an inveterate organizer. I love to organize things, books on a shelf, spices in a rack (alphabetically, of course), blue and black socks are folded differently, money in my billfold all faces the same way in ascending denominations and I have many other nearly disturbing behaviors that indicate I really like organization. (Did you notice the paragraphs in my blog are justified? I absolutely hate uneven lines.) If you are a regular visitor to my blog my penchant for visual organization is abundantly visible. I love composing photographs and finding the perfect place to place my camera so everything in front of the camera looks to be in its’ proper place.

Sometimes, though it makes some sense to have something that doesn’t fit the pattern, because too much regularity and pattern can be boring. The luck of someone leaving their jacket on the bench just before I happen to be there to make a photograph is a wonderful thing. The jacket on a bench says nobody is there right now, but they will be back to pick up their jacket on their way outdoors.

 

The Siren’s Song

The Sentinel, From Academy Street

Being asked to present your photographs at a workshop is a pretty high honor for the non-professional artist/photographer. This type of invitation is a real boost to the ego and the experience can needlessly boost your self-esteem to great heights. And so it was with me. I presented my photographs at a workshop and greatly impressed the participants. They hung on every word I spoke, pored over my photographs and discussed among themselves in hushed, respectful tones my artist’s statement.

After my presentation was completed, one of the participants came to me and quietly said, “We all noticed a spelling error in your statement.” I thought I wrote the sentence, “I heeded its siren song.” My fingers typed an extra letter at the beginning of the word “its.” The consonant added at the beginning of the word “its” is already in the word - and it is not the letter “s.”

This is why I no longer rely on spell check.

And as for the Siren’s Song? I have returned to photograph Academy Street in Cary many, many times. Here are the projects that have come from that street in Cary, North Carolina. The first year is when I began that particular project to when it posted on my web site.

Scroll down the page to find these projects:

Academy Street (1987 – 2001)

An Icon Transformed: The Metamorphosis of an Old Cary School into a New Arts Center (2009 - 2011)

A Change of Pace (2009 - 2011)

Transformation: The Cary Arts Center (2009 – 2014)

Victorian Lady (2014 – 2015)

There are more to come, for sure. I will be mounting a show in July 2016 using the Victorian Lady and a yet to be completed project, "Southern Gothic."