26-DEC-2006
Fountain, Marrakesh, Morocco, 2006
This elegant street fountain is characteristic of Morocco. Flanked by palms, its mosaic design and tiled setting was exactly what I expected to see in Marrakesh. To bring it to life, I caught this woman brushing back her hair just as she reached the center of the fountain. The symmetry of her position worked well with the symmetrical relationship of the palms to the fountain. I break this symmetrical composition only by cropping the right hand palm at the edge of the frame – it keeps the image from becoming static and pulls the eye through the image along with the woman.
22-DEC-2006
Street scene, Ait-Ali, Morocco, 2006
Ait-Ali is a small village near the end of the Dades Gorge. The people who walk this road are going about their daily lives. A man tosses a package from a parked truck. A child runs in front of it. Shoppers come and go. The buildings look as if they have been here for a long time. Its painterly coloration and relatively empty street express the timeless nature of life in a rural Moroccan town.
10-DEC-2006
Conversation by the sea, Essaouira, Morocco, 2006
These men, dressed in traditional Moroccan jellabas, enjoyed a leisurely chat along side of Essaouira sea wall. They take no note of the surging waves crashing against it in the background. Their costumes, as well as the aging wall at their side, suggest that little has changed here over the centuries.
25-DEC-2006
Medina street, Marrakesh, Morocco, 2006
A bike, a man reading a newspaper, and three women dressed according to Islamic custom, carrying purchases, They fill the width of the old street. Their shadows fall before them on ancient, sun washed cobblestones. This is the heart of the medina – the old walled city – of Marrakesh. It is a moment in light, space, and time that offers the viewer a sense of place.
24-DEC-2006
Strangers on a bench, Marrakesh, Morocco, 2006
Seventy per cent of Marrakesh's population earns a living from tourism. It is always high season in Marrakesh, the most exotic and popular destination in Morocco. Its benches are occupied day and night by a variety of visitors such as these. I built this image around layers of light and shadow. A foreground grid of shadows and sidewalk patterns lead to the sun-struck legs of the subjects – each of them arrayed in different positions. The next layer contrasts their body language – relaxed, intent, and absorbed. The final layer holds an ornate bench and its shadow – expressing the nature of Marrakesh as an exotic city.
20-DEC-2006
Contrasting visions, Tineghir, Morocco, 2006
Two women, dressed according to local custom, walk past a contemporary mural on the streets of a provincial city. This scene expresses a common theme in rural Morocco – most of its people must somehow balance cultural traditions with the demands of contemporary life.
29-DEC-2006
Dinner approaches, Marrakesh, Morocco, 2006
These people rushed past me so quickly I never saw what they were carrying until I looked at the picture. It appears as if they are bringing a dish of food to family or friends. This is a neighborhood, deep in Marrakesh’s Medina, or old walled city. Their mission is a neighborly one. Each of these doors represents a home. The white head scarf on the woman at left picks up the white diamond on the door in the distance, and also repeats the white doorstep she is passing and the white towel on the food. These white elements help animate the image, and move the characters forward from home to home along with the painted horizontal panels that decorate the walls of this street. I used a 28mm wideangle lens to stretch the scene and increase its sense of movement.
08-DEC-2006
Rainy day, Casablanca, Morocco, 2006
Our first day in Morocco was miserable. (Fortunately for us, it would be the only day of rain we had on the three-week visit to Morocco.) I made the wretched weather the subject of this picture. Shooting from the inside of a dry parked car, I used a long telephoto (420mm) to focus on a distant figure waiting to cross a busy downtown Casablanca street in a driving rain. I used four layers to express a sense of patience, loneliness, and frustration. The first layer – the wet pavement in the foreground – leads into the image. An abstracted man, shoulders hunched and hands thrust in pockets, stands on a curb next to with a parked bike. This is my subject layer. Blurred cars rush past him in the third layer. The fourth layer is a series of surreal background reflections in the windows of buildings across the street. This image could be a metaphor for the nature of life itself -- we often must face the world alone, and somehow we must have the patience to endure, and make the best we can out of it. Eventually, the traffic will slow; the man will cross the street, and find his way to shelter.
29-SEP-2006
Bison crossing, Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
Animals always have the right of way in Yellowstone. The incongruous congruence of man and bison here is intensified by the flow of animals from right to left. We see bison in full on either side of the road, while semi-abstracted bison work their way around the two cars stopped in front of us. The empty road ahead beckons, but no car will move until all of the bison have safely crossed. I made this shot through the windshield of our van with a telephoto focal length of about 280mm. I took care to place the white lines bordering the road in each corner, drawing the eye diagonally through the image. I anchor the picture on the back of a red car with its five glowing stoplights
23-SEP-2006
Morning coffee, Green River, Utah, 2006
I was shooting the yellow VW for my color gallery (see
http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/69222142 ) when a customer emerged from the coffee shop. He turned the corner, and headed towards his car (not the VW). His head was down, and when his cup of coffee was juxtaposed against the leaf of the Yucca plant painted on the wall, I knew I had my shot. The plant incongruously seems to be sipping from the cup. Street photography is a matter of making the most of our chances. I had no idea this fellow was going to step into my image, but since I was already focused on the VW for another purpose, I was able to photograph this incongruous moment in time. The image also speaks of Green River itself – its slow pace, western flavor, and tight economy.
07-AUG-2006
Watched, 23rd Street, New York City, 2006
I constructed a geometric image, based on the triangle etched into the sidewalk, and continuing with the rectangles and squares of the building and posters behind it. I photographed many different people as they walked into and through my geometric “stage set.” This pair worked most expressively – they walk in opposite directions, eyes fixed straight ahead. They don’t know (or care) that both the woman in the poster and the photographer are carefully watching them pass. I release the shutter as each of them merge into the walls flanking the woman in the poster, yet still remain within the triangle on the sidewalk. They are frozen in time, just as the woman in the poster is. Yet they will keep walking. The woman in the poster will always hold her pose. She seems to be wondering why they won’t.
08-JUN-2006
Dog meets boy, Iwaco, Washington, 2006
We briefly crossed over into Washington on the way to Oregon's coast. In the village of Iwaco, I saw a dog gazing from the bed of a pick up truck at the figure of a child in a historical mural. The truck stopped just long enough for me to make this photograph. I like the way the curve of the dogs neck echoes the curve of the arch over the boy. The image incongruously links two periods in time, boy with dog, and reality with fiction.