338 | Pearl

2002 | Heian-jingu Shrine, Kyoto

Eighty-two years ago today, we all learned something at Pearl Harbor, but since then, not enough.

My parents brought me into a world that had been recently war-torn. My father was a fortunate, precious survivor of the fierce fighting for Okinawa, but he was stranded for another year, waiting for a ship to bring him home to his little family.

I am saddened to hand down our present war-torn world to my own offspring and their generations, and I have to trust that the rare comfort and safety that they enjoy now will allow them to continue their work offsetting greed, anger, and illegitimate power.

▹ Just a few days ago, I found a fine, old, supple Japanese-English dictionary at a closeout sale. When I got home, it fell open in my hands, to the page where mikata was defined in various ways as “point of view.” The footers in this volume include direct and metaphorical usages of each page’s key words. My favorite today for mikata is — “I do not view the matter in that light.”

331 | Unease

2023 | Santa Barbara

The spooky remains of old faux-estate are remarkably rough for a public-access park, a special relief from the homogeneity and scrubbed-ness of the rest of Santa Barbara. Its outlook to the Channel Islands in the southwest is splendid, and when I was there I had the impression that I could see most of the Pacific Ocean.

330 | TOWN

This book was a special idea, and now that it’s off press, paging through it makes me laugh — at the nature of my own curiosity, and how well my camera faithfully brings it home.

The dust jacket designed itself as the book came together, and I was proud to place my picture of Henry Wessel’s side yard on the front, and then Ben Lifson’s front stoop on the back. Those mentors are no longer here to enjoy it with me, but their pairing has always inspired me; cradled between them, my book hardly needs its interior pages.

▹ https://www.mixeddocuments.net/books/

329 | Standing

2012 | Ocean Beach, San Diego

I often get the feeling, in a Zen flash, that there’s no other place to stand where I can place this jewel into its setting.

But then again, it may have always been there, gathering brilliance.

▹ I think it’s time to collect more of these small-town places into a book.

328 | Final Draft — PICTURE - BOOK - TALK

2023 | Marin County, California

I’m way behind with this blog, but up to speed for my talk at the venerable 111-year-old Book Club of California in San Francisco, beginning at 6pm on October 16, 2023. Here you can see my podium script and the SSD which carries one of several copies of the final presentation.

If you are in the area, you may reserve a seat at the talk. For those farther away, you may request a Zoom link. I will show lots of photographs and share my thinking about how I work them up into the works you see here under the BOOKS menu.

https://www.bccbooks.org/programs/

I still can’t believe that in just the past two-and-a-half years I have produced seventeen new titles. (More will appear on my BOOKS link above, after my talk concludes.)

325 | Archival Processing

2004 | Studio City

Here’s more from the old rollfilm that I had set aside unporcessed for over 15 years. I do remember working along normally busy Ventura Boulevard early on weekend mornings, using my view camera with a borrowed 6x12cm rollfilm back. The two-squares aspect ratio seemed ideal for views of commercial buildings lined up east-and-west for dozens of miles.

As I review these now, I’m struck by the inactive look, the unused signage. Someone might be able to come along later and photograph a grand-scale ghost town.

324 | Floor Sort

2023 | Preparing a Retrospective Talk

I’m sorry to be a bit behind here, folks; for the past month, I’ve been reviewing fifty-seven years of work, condensing it into a forty-five-minute talk for the Book Club of California. The Club is a venerable 111-year-old special collection in San Francisco, with public access by appointment, and I’m honored by the invitation to present my work there on October 16, 2023.

If you are in the area, you can reserve a spot at the talk. For those farther away, you can request a Zoom link. I will show LOTS of photographs and do some thinking out loud about how I work them up.

https://www.bccbooks.org/programs/

My talk is entitled PICTURE • BOOK • TALK and will follow my thinking and strategies, as my pictures have accumulated and sorted themselves over the years, evolving and coalescing in my mind as books.

I can’t believe that in just the past two-and-a-half years I have produced seventeen new titles. (They don’t all appear on my BOOKS link above, as several are at press right now.)

323 | The California Aqueduct

1981 | Near Firebaugh

Keeping the water flowing between the Delta pumps and Central and Southern California distribution and end-users means that water must sometimes be halted for unscheduled maintenance. Here, the canal lining has suffered in service (it runs through the Carrizo earthquake country) and is being demolished and replaced. Before that work begins in earnest, the water level is drawn far down, concentrating the resident fish (mostly striped bass) who passed through the screened pumps upstream as eggs or tiny smolts and have grown in the canal to a hefty size. State Department of Fish & Game personnel set nets in the canal to gather the fish and transport them by tank-truck to a more hospitable body of water.

Engineering requires commitment.