Photographs, 2

2001 to 2003 & 2013

Restored and Enhanced Vintage, Hand-painted Transparencies

Statement

The images above are part of a body of artworks that I began in 2013, just for fun.

These tranquil scenes are from vintage, hand-painted photographs taken around 1900. The subject matter is reminiscent of English country gardens and private spaces where an individual might go to spend many quiet hours pondering life's mysteries and rejuvenating ones soul.

I've digitally reworked these public domain images by cleaning them up, improving their dynamic range, cropping them, altering various elements, modifying colours and abstracting them with filters. My goal is to create images that are lush with colour and rich with texture: works that surpass their photographic origins to become something more painterly. To be perfectly honest, I'm fascinated by the aesthetic possibilities of digital processes and the workflow that they support (I'm beginning to realize that this has been true for a long time).

Enhanced Images of the Canadian Prairies

Statement

Some of these images and the ones on the previous page are of the semi-wild park called Nose Hill, which is located in the northwest part of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I'm always impressed by the beauty of these urban parks and hope that this city allows them to remain, although there is constant pressure from some home developers who would like nothing better than turn them into new housing developments. Living on the prairies creates the illusion that a city can continue to sprawl outward forever, gobbling up wilderness and farmland with one new sub-division after another. Calgary is 33 percent larger than Chicago, Illinois in the United States and yet we have only 40 percent as many people living here. This means that Calgary has the lowest density of people living in all the cities of North America: it's nothing to be proud of.

The image titled "Badlands" (previous page) is a view overlooking some of the impressive land formations around Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. This part of the province is called The Badlands. It extends far into the United States through North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. The horizontal lines in the formations are stratified layers of rock that have been exposed over millions of years of erosion. They were originally laid down when this entire region was an inland sea and dinosaurs roamed the land. The famous Royal Tyrrell Museum is very near here. They have an amazing exhibit of many dinosaur fossils that have been found in this region.

The countryside in this part of the world is an interesting mix of natural and man-made elements. The oil "donkies", pictured on the previous page, have become an iconic symbol of the wealth that oil companies generate in this province. While some people find such objects unsightly, I think they add something very interesting to the environment. They are not ugly, but neither do they attempt to hide their function beneath aesthetic artifice. They are unapologetically machine-like structures that move up and down, ceaselessly, day and night every day of the year. To me, they convey a sense of our intense and never-ending dependence on the earth. I'm not sure that most people realize how lucky we are to have access to these resources. The trick is to balance our needs with our wants so we don't destroy our planet.

The images of grain elevators are from several small, rural towns located in Alberta: Morningside, High River and Vulcan. I'm not certain how much longer these iconic structures will remain standing. Most of them are gone already, replaced by more efficient and colder concrete structures.

Some of these images depict a heard of beautiful horses that I came across east of Calgary near Strathmore. They were enjoying the sunny weather in one of the greenest pastures I've ever seen. They kindly allowed me to spend an hour with them, taking photos and watching as they grazed. Some of them seemed to pose for me while others came near and checked me out. Horses are very intelligent and inquisitive animals.

The images of hay bales (previous page) are from a spot looking west toward the Rocky Mountains near Cochrane, a town near Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In the early autumn, it is easy to find many fields that have been harvested of their grains: wheat, barley, rye, millet, canola and oats. The landscape is dotted with hay bales. I'm always amazed by these large cylinders, which can be as big as a car and almost as heavy. I think our farming ancestors would have been equally impressed because their efforts to make hay, with stooks and then square bales later on, rarely exceeded what a single man could lift without the aid of machinery.

Several images depict a romantic view of the prairies with a grave in the foreground. While driving along Highway 2 between Calgary and Lethbridge, I spotted a single grave at the edge of a farmer's field. It was near sunset and there were no other people around for miles. At first, it seemed like a lonely place, but after spending a few minutes staring at the distant hills and the setting sun, a very peaceful feeling washed over me. The grave appeared as though it was being looked after and carefully maintained, so I suspect that this person was loved. It reminded me of the hauntingly beautiful love song, "Fields of Gold" written by Eva Cassidy in 1963 and covered by Sting in 1993:

You'll remember me, when the west wind moves, among the fields of barley. You can tell the sun, in his jealous sky, when we walked in fields of gold.

Will you stay with me? Will you be my love? Among the fields of barley. You can tell the sun, in his jealous sky, when we walked in fields of gold.

I never made promises lightly, and there have been some that I've broken, but I swear in the days still left, we will walk in fields of gold. We'll walk in fields of gold.

I never made promises lightly, and there have been some that I've broken, but I swear in the days still left, we will walk in fields of gold. We will walk in fields of gold. We'll walk in fields of gold.

Many years have passed, since those summer days, among the fields of barley. See the children run as the sun goes down, as you lie in fields of gold.

You'll remember me, when the west wind moves, among the fields of barley. You can tell the sun, in his jealous sky, when we walked in fields of gold. When we walked in fields of gold. When we walked in fields of gold.

The next image depicts an abandoned house that I found southeast of Calgary near a small town named Vulcan. When I took this photo, it had been a very dry couple of years and some parts of the province were suffering from lack of moisture. I think this image perfectly embodies the overwhelming sense that I had of a land drained of life. Trees, grass and every other green thing seemed strangled by the drought.

An image on the previous page depicts a giant boulder called Big Rock (ohkotok in the Blackfoot language). It is a glacial erratic that was left here as the glaciers receded during the last ice age. The stone seems quite out of place in the middle of the flat prairies. For centuries, it was used by indigenous people as a landmark pointing the way to fresh water. Today, the site draws tourists; like our own accidental Stonehenge. It is an impressive site and has a very mysterious aura, which I've tried to convey with this image.

Some of the images on the previous page depict several of the thousands of beautiful views amidst the alpine terrain of the Kananaskis region in the Rocky Mountains in the southern part of Alberta, Canada. Living in Calgary means that a trip to the mountains and all of the hiking that anyone could want are only an hour's drive from the city. You do have to be mindful of bears and cougars though: some people get eaten every now and then.

Enhanced Images of Tropical Banyan / Ficus Tree Photographs

Statement

In 2004 I attended a humanities conference in Waikiki, Hawaii. While walking through Ala Moana Beach Park I saw the most amazing Banyan and Ficus trees with branches cascading to the ground in sinuous, intertwining columns that seemed to epitomize the very concept of complex organic growth. Many of these trees display a lifetime of scars - people's initials carved into them, branches that have been broken or severed - and yet they remain, silent and patient, bearing witness to the world as it unfolds around them. Waikiki was so beautiful that it seemed to me like a contemporary Garden of Eden.

I took hundreds of photos, the best of which are presented here in the form of manipulated and enhanced images. As with many of the other works on this site, my goal is to create images that are lush with colour and rich with texture: works that have the same aesthetic sensibility as paintings.

These images are NOT landscapes with trees in them; they are portraits of astonishing organisms, each with as much individuality and character as a person. I hope that these images inspire you with their beauty as much as they've inspired me.