14-DEC-2006
Entrance, Royal Tomb, Rabat, Morocco, 2006
Glittering spires of copper candelabras, and the national flag flank the steps to the tomb of King Mohammed V, Morocco's most important modern ruler (1927-1961). I found a vantage point that allowed me to layer the image, placing the spires in the foreground layer and the flag in the background layer. The spires on the candelabra reflect the sun, and symbolize royal authority. The Moroccan flag is a symbol as well – its green pentagram represents Solomon’s seal – it origin dates back to the Babylonian Empire. It symbolizes the link between God and the nation. Morocco is an Islamic country, and the King is regarded as a descendant of Mohammed. In fact, virtually all aspects of a tomb – its architecture and its decoration, are associated in one way or another with symbolism. As a photographer, I try to abstract and juxtapose such symbols to intensify meaning.
29-SEP-2006
Firescreen, Lake Hotel, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
A hammered tin pine tree is affixed to the firescreen on the hearth of this historic hotel, which opened in 1891. The warmth of its coppery color and the primitive nature of the jagged pine branches symbolize both a warm welcome to travelers and the rustic nature of the park itself. The logs waiting to be kindled and the well-used walls of the hearth itself have symbolized a warm and hospitable welcome to hotel guests, who began coming to this hotel by stagecoach over 100 years ago.
30-SEP-2006
Bull Moose, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 2006
A big moose on a big hill, his foreleg bent to the task, its eyes looking straight ahead makes a perfect symbol of determination. I composed the image so that the moose is plodding diagonally from the lower left hand corner towards the upper right hand corner. He has a long way to go, and he moves his great bulk slowly but steadily. The massed branches that dot the landscape reach out to greet his antlers as they move forward. To make this image, I cut my ten megapixel resolution in half, transforming my 12x zoom lens into a 17x zoom lens, which provided a focal length of nearly 600mm. I needed every bit of that reach to make the moose this large in the frame.
24-SEP-2006
The angel, Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2006
This image is symbolic because its subject, the angel that crowns the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, is a symbol in itself. The image of the angel Moroni is commonly used as an unofficial symbol of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It faces eastward, where in 1823, it appeared to Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Jr. and told him about golden plates containing Mormon gospel that were buried a few miles from Smith’s home. Smith translated the plates into the Book of Mormon and returned them to Moroni. Earlier, I had photographed the angel blowing its trumpet from the top of the temple (See that image by clicking on the thumbnail at the bottom.) This image is more abstract, because I photograph it from behind, as it moves away from us. Using a 334mm telephoto focal length, I tried to add tension and energy to the gilded figure glowing in the early morning light by pulling the viewer’s eye to it through a screen of softly focused trees.
22-SEP-2006
Abandoned School House, Moab, Utah, 2006
What appears to be an abandoned school stands alone just behind the crest of a hill. This image is a blend of the three primary colors, yellow school, navy blue sky, and reddish earth. The yellow color brings the old school house into a vivid present, a color that could be interpreted as a symbol of renewal. Because the school is so small, I do not stress its ruination – we can’t dwell on the rust on its roof and siding, or on its broken windows. Rather, I stress its isolation in space, and use the symbolism of the spunky yellow building standing alone against the ominous deep blue sky, to create a metaphorical challenge: the small school standing alone on the horizon can viewed as a school of hard knocks. Education itself can often be a tough, lonely and demanding task – and this image conveys that aspect as well.
07-SEP-2006
Monsoon ablaze, Phoenix, Arizona, 2006
The oncoming rush of a powerful monsoon storm catches one’s attention. Particularly at day’s end, when the last rays of a setting sun illuminate the billowing storm clouds as if they were the coming of the Apocalypse. And that is what this image symbolizes --an apocalyptic vision, the end of the world as we know it. The abstracted house and that mound of branches represent our world, while the fiery sky is a metaphor for the inevitable day when the sun will consume it. I made this picture from my front door, shooting across the roof of a neighbor’s house. We can see the tops of some trees behind it, their branches rhythmically echoing the long curve of the oncoming storm clouds. The top of that house and the branches rising just above it provide my foreground layer, giving a sense of scale to the monumental billows of orange and gray clouds that loom overhead. The play of fiery light on these storm clouds lasted less than a minute. I had time to compose just three shots, and then it faded. Thunder, lightning and rain took its place.
11-JUL-2006
Monte Vista Hotel, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2006
Built in 1926, the Monte Vista Hotel’s sign dominates the skyline. It has been the symbol of Flagstaff for eighty years, and is said to be haunted. I photographed the sign from a distance, using a long 430mm focal length. The letters themselves seem to be ghostly; the neon tubes that illuminate the sign at night seem skeletal. I add still another level of symbolism by including the two flagstaffs that stand in nearby Heritage Square in my picture. They not only symbolize the country, but also echo the very name of the community.
07-JUN-2006
Wig shop window, Portland, Oregon, 2006
This image blends the regimentation of corporate life with escapist fantasies displayed in a window of a Portland costume and wig shop. It draws on symbolism to express its point – even here in the very shadow of corporate America, whose rigid structures are reflected in the window, there is always the seductive promise of escape. The mannequin in the hat, mask, wig, placed within an arch of golden squares, symbolizes such an escape.
08-JUN-2006
Timber, Portland, Oregon, 2006
The splintered top of a weathered post along the Columbia River just outside of Portland records the years of its former life as a tree. I found it to be as good a symbol as any for the timber industry that gives Oregon so much of its character. With my lens set for macro focusing, I was able to move in within a few inches of the old post to stress this symbolic detail.
23-MAR-2006
Exhibit, Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima, Japan, 2006
At 8:15 am on August 6, 1945, the city of Hiroshima, Japan, was destroyed by a single American atomic bomb. The event is commemorated in this museum. The photomural features an image of a wristwatch stilled forever by the blast. The actual watch rests in the case at right. I waited and watched as a steady flow of people moved somberly past the watch and the mural. I made this image when two of them stopped to contemplate the horror of the event, while a third moves past in a blur. The watch has become a symbol that makes an event such as this more personal and real. The mural has become a symbol as well, enlarging the wristwatch to monumental size, thereby magnifying its significance. My own image stops time, just as the watch has. I create symbolic meaning of my own by using a symbol of a symbol as my subject matter.
17-SEP-2005
The Sacred Way, Ancient Delphi, Greece, 2005
The remnants of ancient Delphi, renowned as the dwelling place of the god Apollo, overlook the Delphic Gorge on the slopes of Mt. Parnassus. From the end of the 8th century B.C., people from all over the world came to Apollo’s great temple to ask him how to govern their lives. Apollo answered through a priestess, known as the Delphic Oracle. All roads led to these steps – the Sacred Way – an ancient path that twists and turns its way through the ruins of the place the ancient Greeks considered the center of the universe. I wanted to make a picture of the Sacred Way as more than just a road. I wanted to make an image that symbolized the unknown, the uncertainties, and the questions that drew people looking for answers to these steps for more than 1200 years. As I slowly climbed the Sacred Way very late in the afternoon, I noticed how the sun reflected off the worn marble steps. I limited the image to just six levels, and exposed for those reflections. The textures came up beautifully, and the black gaps in between each surface seemed to symbolize chasms of doubt and mystery.
16-JUL-2005
Disappearance, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005
A woman walks below the long colonnade outside of Santa Fe’s Institute of American Indian Arts – the early morning sunlight grazing her arm, hand, and foot. The rest of her is enveloped in darkness. In an instant she was gone. Since I was exposing on the exterior of the building, the shadow is entirely black, swallowing the woman who is unknowingly walking into it. Her arm, hand and foot are the last parts I saw of her. Such shadows can symbolize the unknown, a mystery, and a void. Someone entering that void seems to be lost forever. For all practical purposes, this woman is in the process of vanishing.