This weekend I will be participating in my 18^th Wickford Art festival. My booth is right in front of the  former Wilson Scott Galleries at 14 Main Street, #235. The cover of the festival brochure is “Channel Fog”, one of my most favorite pieces.

Optimism for the show is high. I look forward talking about photography, travel and personal vision as well as publicizing the upcoming Profundo Journeys photography workshops to New Hampshire and Hungary.

What generates the excitement this year? I will be showing work that is going in a direction I have been moving towards for a few years now as if by osmosis.

The study of light is still important as if a distant shoreline, but now the flow of my photography has been to look closer and closer. I am all about being more aware of the renewed world around me as if another door has opened.

What are the characteristics of this newness? Light , water, form and stillness; there is an intuitiveness whose deep connection results in clicking the shutter; the world is mirror that reflects the stillness in my soul. This makes it self more apparent everyday and it is very exciting to be standing by the water practicing eternity. A couple of examples are posted here; “Red Pelican Reflection” and “Coot”. Come by for a visit. Saturday & Sunday July 9 & 10.

 

Comfort Zone

For the upcoming Art League of Rhode Island show (Portsmouth Arts Guild July 14-August 14, 2011) “Comfort Zone” I have decided to go to my comfort zone; which is the study of light and stillness in the landscape. These images are reverent, reflective and intuitive. They are about the contrast of the hand of man, serenity, and the power of nature.

Additionally, in preparation for the Wickford Art Festival (Wickford RI, July 9 & 10, 2011), there is always the temptation to show what has sold in the past. I love my treasure chest of proven sellers; lighthouses, sunsets and Block Island images. This year, I will display images to which there is the flow of vision through many years of photographing. On the surface, they have different subject matter, but they all spring from the same well.

 

Reflections of our Greece Photography Workshop May 2011

What a profound journey! Fourteen days of photographic immersion. The journey was in finding the authenticity in one’s own vision.

We were seven students, two instructors, and one cultural advisor. Our journey took us from the city life in Athens to the traditional in Crete to picture perfect Santorini and back again. We experienced Greek hospitality from our urban dining experiences to the warmth with which our hosts in the mountains received us.

There was technical and creative instruction from teachers, development of one’s unique visual perspective and the tasting of the Greek culture. We learned most of all from each other how to express with the camera what the eye sees. As an instructor, it was a joy to witness the mutual respect and encouragement within the group. From those who started the trip with much experience to those photographing with intent for the first time, the quality of the image making was incredible.

The images posted are some of the experiences of the group as we traveled together. I am proud to have been a part of this wonderfully deep and rich experience.

Linking with the past 4_20_11

As I work with Cindy Blair on a redesign of my web site, I am amazed at how many different strands there are in my work, and yet how everything overlaps as from the same source.

I have taken a holiday from the sea; its light and atmospheric qualities. Yet the same reverence I experience in witnessing the moods of the coast, I find in this very personal exploration of ruins and forgotten places.

The images contained in this entry taken during a three-day period last week, are freshly discovered old friends…mills and remnants of present day civilization. There is a sense of timelessness in the continued deterioration and in the weathering; a presence in what lies behind or beneath. What remains is in witnessing the story each has to tell, when one stops to consider. 

In photographing in these places, I am drawn first to the subject, then to graphic qualities, textures and light.

My approach is of reverence and respect; the clearer I feel my relationship is with these feelings, the better my subject is represented in the image. There is a point of understanding when it is appropriate to move closer, and when to stand back and bear witness...

What goes around...

March 24, 2011

My experience in the Contemplative Landscape workshop was eye opening in many ways; I came home to find more successes in my image making than what I thought when I was there. Such is the case with 'Frosted Hills'. In the chill of the morning, as I scanned the pink snowy mountains tops and setting moon, my eye kept returning to the texture of these frosted rock formations covered with snow In the editing process I was looking perhaps too hard for something more transcending, and yet this was what moved me. 

My landscape work has traditionally featured some hand of man to create the context of the overwhelming beauty and power of nature. There was no such evidence here, and it took some time to get comfortable with trying not to turn over rocks, but to accept the richness in the given scene.

I also found myself going back to root subject matter; the kind of photos I was drawn to when I first started taking pictures; a trip to the ghost town of Rhyolite and a long contemplative session with a box car proved to be a gold mine. 

I returned home intrigued with that sensibility. Following are images made with the feeling of forgotten places; that have stories to tell to those willing to pause and consider; a factory in Connecticut; a highway overpass in Providence; a rail yard in Portland Maine. There is an intuitive mystery in these things that I connect with on a soul level, one that continues to give me profound satisfaction to pursue.

The Journey Continues

 It is almost a week since the Contemplative Landscape workshop in Death Valley with Lydia Goetz and George deWolf.  It was an incredible experience artistically; we were encouraged to explore our awareness of place and self through mindfulness training.

  At times I felt like the new tools I was given were getting in the way of the visual experience, after all, I was in Death Valley, a place of remarkable beauty contrasted with endless desolation. I had to learn to let go of the search for the postcard. In reflecting back through the images, I see the beginnings of a heightened clarity of vision, and the intuitive sense of what can be possible.

 What I now possess is  the mindful practice of feeling/seeing what is in front of me without the filter of expectations.  I have been told it will take a couple of years to truly grow into this new level of authenticity in my work. I am including a few samples of the week's experiences.

The blog starts here

February 17, 2011

It's amazing how easily writing comes to me; I have been keeping a daily journal of morning pages for 3 years. I have been photographing what matters to me for 35 years. The blog is where it comes together.

As I embark on this endeavor what are my objectives?

To show the dichotomy of my work; the brilliance of light on the landscape to what is left behind by the hand of man…I have a passion for both subjects. In my recent cruise/shore side Fla experience, I was daily recording the phenomena of clouds at sunrise, as well as what a former instructor termed the 'vernacular'. In my cindywilsonphoto.com web site, the latter has been termed 'scrapbook' and 'out of the ordinary'. To me it is individual creations of humanity that speak of individuality. A great joy for me is to escape the eight-lane highway and travel the local roads to find these curiosities. The giant orange crab on the Indian River was cause for a u-turn and closer exploration. It's mission, to call attention to its existence was accomplished.

Being aware of light has been a constant for me since my years of living on Block Island, where, in being surrounded by the ocean, light takes on a all encompassing value. Light colors and shapes the landscape, but light, as a subject is a new doorway for me. My creative spirit is light and it is being able to see this feeling reflected that renders each manifestation exciting and personal.

'Cayman Squall at Sunrise' was taken from under cover on the 12^th deck of the SS Freedom of the Seas just outside of Cayman Island during a rainstorm. The squall line was visible as a low dense cloud mass and a mist seemed to rise from the land to greet it. As the squall passed it reflected the color of the rising sun. 'Caribbean Skies' is a testament to the awesome beauty of clouds at sunrise. One could create a strong image every day at this time, as it is the nature of light never to happen the same way twice.

And now, the journey continues. Saturday begins a week long photography workshop "The Contemplative Landscape" in Death Valley. Just the name conjures expectations of honing artistic vision, and being able to better share what it is I truly feel & see.