Fosters Pond, 2000
TWO HUNDRED SEASONS
The 50-year chronology of my self-portraits has always been based on a desire to write. Photographs speak because:
THE WORLD IS STILL
Unlike film, nothing moves in a photograph
THE WORLD IS FLAT
Unlike sculpture, a photograph is only as
thick as the paper it’s printed on
THE WORLD IS LUMINOUS
Unlike words, without light a photograph
is breathless to say anything
THE WORLD IS ETERNAL
Unlike hearsay, a photograph always lives in the present, provided nothing is manipulated
THE WORLD IS MAGICAL
Unlike the known world, a photograph can reveal a new reality we have never seen
Jamestown, Rhode Island, 1974 (negative)
ART IS RISK MADE VISIBLE
Two quotes have guided my creative life. “Unless we see with the eyes of a child,” Brancusi wrote, “we make no art.” Add to this Braque’s dictum, “Out of limited means new forms emerge.” Thus, I made a contract with myself about what I would not do. There would be no manipulation of any kind so that the image would correspond exactly with the reality before the lens. There would be no need for clothes in a timeless, natural world. Nor would I photograph someone else to take my place in the photographs. No reason to put anyone but myself in discomfort or in harm’s way. To preserve my signature in the work and not make it a collaborative process, the only eye with access to my viewfinder would be my very own.