Number
Sometimes, something makes more sense if it lacks significance. For example, I liked the color of a discarded orange sign. I liked the fact that it had a number on it. A number is data. Data is fun when taken out of context because it doesn’t explain much—but strangely does, in different ways, to each of us.
On playing records
I love records. Records are time capsules, and I love records that sound fresh across time and go on to inspire new groundbreaking records.
Multiple Visits
A second visit to Palo Duro Canyon can become an opportunity to notice what’s changed. We can visit the canyon a hundred times without experiencing two identical trips. For example, sometimes it’s the weather, or you’ll see animal tracks.
I’ve been there
Why do we need a photo to explain a place?
Proximity and Proportionality
In pictures, proximity could be a perception of space between multiple things, and proportionality could be a relationship between discernible surface areas.
9x12
A 9x12 Avus camera is a back-pocket view camera. Its single-sided cartridges carry 9x12 cm negatives that we could develop and scan at home, and the compact camera could hold glass plates covered with homemade emulsion.
Abstract
In proximity to everything, monochrome represents hard times. The thought of everything worsening misinterprets how far we’ve come. Each photo changes photography. There’s a point where enough is enough and plenty near gratitude. It’s hard to become impoverished in a free society.
Odessa
After a railway had reached El Paso in the 1880s, a sleepy cattle town grew outward across a dusty plain, Grant and Texas avenues, a place changed by energy, where effort and determination resulted in houses and opportunities.
Marfa
From Odessa, Marfa is close but not too close: plateaus prompt us to expand our horizons.
Way Out
What will we do with all of these photos we’ve taken? Gathering new ones takes less time than sifting through our current inventory, and how many images of the same vintage motel sign do we need?
Writing
The ability to write is a sturdy boat on rough seas.
Lessen Suffering
Why we start businesses is similar to why we write songs if the reason is to lessen suffering. Reducing suffering is as close to a philosophy of everything that I have found.
New Monochrome
With a print, we’ll sit with a two-dimensional surface and see tonal variations throughout. We’ll eye lines and shapes and bring meaning to what’s constructed inside our minds.
Corrugated
As a blacktop marks an arid plain, rust covers corrugated metal, tubbing stretches over powdery caleche, and mesquites surround valved pumpjacks, and a pickup passes roadside debris outside town.
Pre-2000
Film photography was a folk art. People wrote with light, and shutters drew simple moments into dark boxes.
More Art
It takes a beginning to end and ending, and in art’s closing, there’ll be more.
Standing at the center of it all
Courthouses center rural counties in Texas. With stone clock towers, arched windows, and decorative ornamentation, they are temples of justice surrounded by streets and commerce.
Head, Foot, and Eye Protection Required
Art galleries come and go, yet artists remain open for a lifetime. There’s no positive answer to my work because it looks like pictures of stuff and is often written off as easy, but it’s thoughts on image assemblage.
Tire Art
Tire Mart’s letter M went missing.
Orla
It’s a long way to anywhere from Orla Grocery, where a tall cylindrical gas pump stands outside a small wooden building covered with flaking paint, and within, a concession stand waits beside mailboxes—the last stop for gas, cold drinks, snacks, beer, and ice.