Archive Diving

Announcements: My new e-book, Future Hindsights, will be available for purchase from my website on Friday, May 15th. I will post an announcement and link on this blog when I release it. If you wish to receive the announcement and my regular blog articles via email, please subscribe here. If you wish to purchase autographed copies... Continue Reading →

Aboutness—Further Thoughts

Today, I share with you more thoughts on the topic of "aboutness," which I discuss in a couple of my books. As always, I offer these essays free of the annoyances of advertising and paywalls. Still, if it is within your means to contribute as little as a couple of dollars to support this blog—the... Continue Reading →

Finding Creative Fulfillment – An Interview with Grant Swinbourne

It was my great pleasure recently to speak with Grant Swinbourne's as part of his podcast, Landscape Photography World. My thanks to Grant for featuring me and for the excellent questions. Be sure to check out Grant's archives for more interesting conversations, and subscribe to be notified of future ones. (I happen to know at... Continue Reading →

On Seeing

Accustom yourself every morning to look for a moment at the sky and suddenly you will be aware of the air around you, the scent of morning freshness that is bestowed on you between sleep and labor. You will find every day that the gable of every house has its own particular look, its own... Continue Reading →

Inner Expression

How can you expect a beholder to experience my picture as I experienced it? A picture comes to me a long time beforehand; who knows how long a time beforehand, I sensed, saw, and painted it and yet the next day even I do not understand what I have done. How can anyone penetrate my... Continue Reading →

On Tradition and Imitation

Those who feel guilty contemplating “betraying” the tradition they love by acknowledging their disapproval of elements within it should reflect on the fact that the very tradition to which they are so loyal . . . is in fact the evolved product of many adjustments firmly but delicately made by earlier lovers of the same... Continue Reading →

My Interview with Richard Bernabe

Recently, I've had the pleasure of interviewing with my friend and photographer extraordinaire, Richard Bernabe, for his excellent podcast, Beyond the Lens. Richard and I have known each other a long time, but this was the first time we sat down to record a deep conversation about our approaches to photography. I enjoyed it very... Continue Reading →

On Aesthetic Experiences

Note: My upcoming book, Be Extraordinary, is now available to pre-order! Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. —Aldo Leopold Art and nature have this in common: they affect some people more profoundly... Continue Reading →

On Prisoners and Dilemmas

It’s always easier not to think for oneself. Find a nice safe hierarchy and settle in. Don’t make changes, don’t risk disapproval, don’t upset your syndics. It’s always easiest to let yourself be governed. There’s a point, around age twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your... Continue Reading →

Difficult and Worthwhile

But perhaps the great work of art has less importance in itself than in the ordeal it demands of a man and the opportunity it provides him of overcoming his phantoms and approaching a little closer to his naked reality. —Albert Camus Note: This article contains passages borrowed from various sections of the manuscript-in-progress for... Continue Reading →

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