“Meet me Where the Pavement Ends” (B&W version)

Version 2

A Black and White version of the previous posting. Shot in 1996 on film. Once I scanned it into a PC a few years ago, I have made some minor adjustments, cropping and contrast mostly, converting to B&W. Of the thousands of images I have shot since, this one remains in my top ten. Interestingly enough, I have shown this image in at least three shows, and it has never sold. My next door neighbor, Hanna, my wife and daughter love it though. So, all is not lost :-).

Full Circle

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Two images, nearly 45 years apart, explore the same theme. One way to portray the human sense of aloneness is to put the subject alone in a large context, almost to the point of being almost meaningless, hard to find. The subject in this context is either not whole ( as in the Coney Island image) or is stepping into the shadow ( as in the Telegraph Hill image from 1970). Most photographers would explore this theme by focussing closely on the subject, as in a portrait with certain facial expressions to convey the theme. In both of these images the viewer is forced to look longer and closer to find the subject. To further emphasize the theme I picked places that are normally associated with lots of human traffic and times when that traffic might be minimal or non-existent.

Just as an aside: To shoot both of these images I used the same strategy, that is planting myself and camera in a location, waiting for the image/shot to come to me. This, too, is contrary to what is generally taught in photo classes; they always stress scouting your location ahead of time and going out with a plan of what you want to shoot. All good and well, but sometimes breaking the rules allows for surprising results.

Normally I let my images do the “talking” and let people decide what they see and how they see it. With these two images I got a sense of personally coming full circle, something a few words, would help to explain how they came about and how my perceptions are formed.

Madeleine and Adam

imageAt Portland’s original Rose Garden and Fountain, two of our grandchildren. Before moving to a larger plot of land, just west of downtown Portland, OR., the original Rose Garden was located in NE Portland, where this photo was taken. Dipping your feet in the fountain pool is a good idea when the temps have been hovering around 100!