The first in a series of Flora - This series is a work-in-progress
‘Lost Flamingos in the Cloud Forest’ Is an exploration of beauty out-of-place and an awkwardness for survival. The moody, inland environments of the Cloud Forest (Costa Rica) is the backdrop for these misplaced, lone birds. (Flamingos are very social birds and live in colonies consisting of thousands.) In this series, the flamingos have gone awry and are defenseless, vulnerable, barely surviving in their misplaced isolation. (Their habitats are large alkaline or saline lakes or estuarine lagoons that usually lack vegetation.) The flamingos’ ‘sculptural’ forms and loud pink/orange colors are incongruous, odd, mystifying within the Cloud Forest’s varied landscapes.
This series, ‘Unlikely Water Animals’, is an exploration of ‘misplaced’ non-water animals in rising sea levels and eroding shorelines due to global warming. It brings to question if this is merely a visit or their new habitat. The backdrop of these coastlines and ‘surging seas’ emphasize the vulnerability and mortality of these creatures confronting a new and impossible environment. How will they survive? Noah’s Ark? When would they land? I feel very deeply about our ecosystem in crises and its creatures. I hope these images convey that concern.
As this series is a work-in-progress, it is subject to change….like the wind.
The wind was ferocious this past winter (2022) by the Atlantic Ocean. The birds, soaring here and there, appeared silhouetted black, grey or white. against this seascape. The unruly wind felt as if were splicing the air. And the birds coasting, hovering, flying, among these fractures.
Under construction
The Chickens of Cappadocia
The fowl in these capricious images are indigenous to the environment in which they were composited-Cappadocia, Turkey. The first impression of these images is a sense of equal parts fun and mastery. As much attention is put into the formal qualities of the work as is given to their droll subject matter. In many of the images, the shapes of the chickens are put into dialogue with similar rock formations. We see a full treatment of the landscape, as well as a surreal/pop portraiture of creatures all too familiar, yet equally odd.
In the Romantic tradition, these landscapes often convey the sublimity of nature being surveyed by the lone individual. The unfamiliar, exotic quality of these selected landscapes creates the sense of mystery and surprise, with the chicken as a sort of Romantic "high priest." Here, however, this priest has been ironically supplanted by the chicken, who is humorously elevated to something approaching nobility and the heroic.
I found sea turtle eggs that never hatched or were destroyed on a beach in Ocean Ridge, Florida. I was compelled to photograph these eggs as the climate and the world is changing so rapidly. I placed them on cardboard and photographed them on the beach where I found them.
Each year the beaches around Palm Beach County are home to the highest number of Leather-back Turtle nests and the second highest number of Loggerhead and Green Turtle nests in the country.
The shapes and the colors of these various types of gourds/pumpkins captivated me. They became parts of a mischievous puzzle in placement. The string/line in these pictures were originally an accident, however, I began to play with this added component. This created a somewhat humorous comment on balance or - in some cases- playful punctuation marks in a visual conversation between the different elements. This factor with this group became the ‘Etc.’
With another group the Etc. became the diametrically opposed geometric shapes playing against these organic forms.
In other images, a divine, or supernatural bolt- the Etc.- engages these gourds/pumpkins with the unknown.
In all the images, I hope to convey a sense of mystery, and give a unique ‘life’ to the pumpkins and gourds.
Covid-19 Postcards a work-in-progress
I’ve been taking pictures relating to the virus in my neighborhood (Soho & Greenwich Village, NYC) people, posters, graffiti, signs, etc. I added a ‘postcard’ component which allows me to note the location -like a postcard- and add a date which chronicles the changes through the months. Many of the Covid-19 related posters/ signs become the ‘stamps.’ There is a certain irony of creating a postcard out of a plague. It’s definitely not ‘having a wonderful time, wish you were here’. The postcard ‘message’ is left blank as the viewer can offer their own interpretation to the image. As the months wore on another layer of world events exploded with the killing of George Floyd / Looting/ Black Lives Matter protests. I have included several images of these events with Covid-19 lurking in the background. I also hope to convey the ‘meltdown’ through this time.
I have hundreds of b&w analog images. Here are just a few.
