Willie Dale, retiree and citizen of Paris Kentucky sits inside of his pickup truck outside of Eads Hardware.

A few weeks have passed since I had the pleasure of visiting Rockport Maine for a workshop at Maine Media led by Richard Tuschman, titled, Staging the Cinematic Photograph. The lush campus and spattering of cottage style buildings reminded me of the scenery of my alma mater, Mills College in Oakland California where I had the privilege of completing my undergrad. I owe a great deal of gratitude to the version of that liberal arts institution and those who made my education possible while there. In so many ways it shaped who I am and what I care about today.

Various shots I took during principal photography in Sequoia National Park while shooting for the Musical Uplink Series back in 2020.  Locations included Crescent Meadow, Hanging Rock, Big Tree Trail, and the Parker Group.

Black and white photo of Series Producer Niccolo Go, carrying a boom pole through tall meadow grass, photo titled, “fishing for sound”

These Images were taken in Sequoia National Park during the KNP Complex Fire. Here are some quotes from photographers and critics that remind me of this experience.  "Cameras began duplicating the world at that moment when the human landscape started to undergo a vertiginous rate of change: while an untold number of forms of biological and social life are being destroyed in a brief span of time, a device is available to record what is disappearing." - Susan Sontag "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." -...

A visual metaphor on wandering, self expression, a life— and life’s “work in progress,” retraced footsteps, blurred escapes…Street stains and shadows— “I was a painter before, and it was always about the frame, of course. But within this frame (photography), somehow, because of movement, because of things passing through the frame, it seemed to have a life bigger than the actual frame itself.”— Steve Mcqueen Interview in Hunger, Criterion (2010).

Composition in visual art contains mathematical components, as does music. The first time I heard the term Visual Acoustics , I was immediately intrigued. Julias Schulman, a modernist architectural photographer from the late 20th century coined the term. His architectural photographs featured very apparent rhythmic symmetry which honored the attention to detail and intentions of builders and designers. In this way the subject was not only authentically captured, but the creator-- also remembered. When performing music, a musician's eye scans a sheet of music searching for notes to...

“The photograph is completely abstracted from life, yet it looks like life. That is what has always excited me about photography.” - Richard Kalvar For me,  taking a photo is the last part of making a photo. What do I mean by that? In studying photography, there are two veins I have found most interesting. The first  is simply to study the various photographic genres and the photographers who made notable contributions in those genres; the second is to pay close attention to how those same photographers began their careers, what their early work was informed by, and...