Photographs of the essence of place

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Photographs from the Earth Dreams portfolio are of place, be it a natural scene or a vista of the works of man. There are found via travel. This travel, whether across the sea or down the street in New York City is an act of discovery as the world reveals itself to the sojourner. The point is to see these places and be receptive to what they say of themselves.

Sometimes the setting is a natural one. This class of photographs is of trees, water, formations of the earth, the beauty of the sky, and the interaction between these elements. These more classic landscapes are of creation acting on the earth through time. They are an attempt to experience geological and theological currents beyond our ability to intuitively comprehend.

For other landscapes photographs in this portfolio the setting is man-made. They are photographs set in a city, town, building, or some other creation directly made humans beings. The intent and interest are very different than those natural photographs. Here the interest is in the social structure we live. In. The settings were built with specific intentions and these intentions tell us much about these builders. Not just the individual that built these places, but the culture that they are a part, become revealed in the contemplation of the photographs.

A point in time captured in a photograph is the sum of a people’s history that leads up to the thing photographed. It is the pointy end of the process of the evolution of the culture that we see within the photograph. A place can poetically rich and complex well beyond our ability to understand the details.