Transition To Parts

On my walks in morning light, the air is cool and crisp even in high summer. But lately it’s been cool here, even in the middle of the day, and the light is delicate and beautiful during the time of the walk with a gentle fog and soft light everywhere. 

As I walk I come across these fragments of things, an unknown language of debris and wind, spelling out unknown messages I recognize but cannot translate across the pavement surfaces. 

Memory flits through my head: a novel wherein a sentient computer seeks a way to express its sentience: it made boxes, art pieces of ineluctable beauty composed of a bit of string, a piece of bone, ephemera. Poised and self-contained yet yearning and full of emotion. Captivating notions. One of the Neuromancer series, perhaps? perhaps.

The past week and some has been a relentless push to reach a point of departure. Many levels. And then this photo from my archives of recent work leapt out at me. Multi-layered mental states, separation crossing space, the pieces of twig and leaf, lines crossing a divide. A gesture, unbidden, on the ground plays out its music, an eye captures the song. Sentience or Chance? I cannot say. 

Tomorrow I head south, an overnight in San Simeon to see the famous castle, once again in Mexico. After which trains from there to here again. It will be a fine adventure. 

This metaphor breathes quietly in my thoughts. 

Of Time And Place

Often, as I traveled on business in the 1990s and early 2000s, I would find myself with an afternoon free, a weekend free … Time free from all other commitments in places that I could not ordinarily afford to be on my own dime. These are ideal times to exploit, to practice looking and seeing (note, they’re two separate skills!), to practice photographing the moments of the unforeseen. 

This photograph was granted an “Honorable Mention” in Session 3 of the

Minox Historical Society 2010 Photo Competition. 

The MHS 2010 Photo Competition Sessions 1, 2 and 3 have surfaced a lot of really nice Minox photos! Check them out on the MHS blog: use the link on the MHS web page at 

http://www.minox.org

I do remember that day well: it was a chilly afternoon, I’d visited Museo D’Orsay and Notre Dame, was heading back towards my hotel. I had the Minox C in my pocket and made a number of exposures while I was walking along, contemplating where I’d been, where I was, and what was next to come. 1998 seems not so very long ago. 

Looking forward to some travel again soon. I and my partner head down to San Simeon at the end of the month to visit the Hearst castle. And then to Tijuana for a brief visit afterwards. I’ve just booked my ticket home in the first week of August … I decided to take an excursion so I’m zig-zagging from San Diego to Los Angeles, to Bakersfield, to Stockton, and thence home by train. It should be an interesting trip, I’ve never done a train excursion through California

Pondering where I’d been, where I am, and what is next to come, I’m sure. Camera will be in hand, as always. 

124 – Broken Leaf

The air, misty, smells of salt and sea this morning. I walk my mile to the coffee shop and think. Homeless woman with her wide wicker hat and bag of belongings sleeps on the sidewalk in the cool mist four blocks from my apartment door. A shard of leaf and pavement catches my attention: I make a photograph. Walk on, think, and try to see.

Onwards, I return.