This is the Modern World

"Life is beautiful," you say, "well, it's full of crap, too." Yes, I know. That's a legitimate criticism. In visual art, does the soul just seek beauty? What about awareness of historical context? The photograph stops time, but time doesn't really stop. This past week has been rife with disturbing social history, as every week is, and I resisted putting up a new post here until I saw it as an opportunity to say what I had previously considered. An acknowledgement that the stop-time of beauty requires complication. These below are from Savannah, Georgia, 2009. The first is of the Cotton Exchange, built on an economy made rich by slavery. It was weird to be there (that's me in yellow in the second photograph). Slavery! It seems a world away. It isn't. And, yes, Savannah is beautiful. In the core. Along the highway we viewed slums and suburbs. This is the modern world, past and present, good and bad, the hopeful and the horrible, all mixed up.

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Here/there, then/now

Scenes from our home, 2009. Some of these taken on Kate's 41st birthday. The second shot is her dresses in the closet. It took me a minute to figure that out. The shells are still on that shelf, just as shown. Bubbly. Cheers. The first shot explores angles. Square. Triangle. It also shows a barrier: inside/outside. Here/there. It's hard not to think: then/now.

Winter Patterns, North and South

Is that footprint not the sweetest thing ever? Three photographs here from Ontario 2008 and three from South Carolina 2009. Winter, north and south. Wild patterns of nature.

About the House

Feb 2009. Four shots of views and things about the house. The last one I can't figure out. It's from March 2008.

Wind Waves Water

South Carolina, 2009

Trees

Trees offer a subject of infinite variety. Here's a collection from far and wide. Top two, the view from our backyard, 2009. South Carolina, 2007. Grey County, Ontario, tornado damage, 2009. View from Highway 89, 2009. Two from South Carolina, 2008. Two from country north of Belleville, 2009. Sunset through the trees, South Carolina, 2009. Three from Savannah, Georgia, 2009. Mexico, 2012.

 

  

Nana's House

Scenes from the matriarchal abode, 2009.