Town
Rankin, Texas
Taken Seriously
If a picture is good enough for a view camera, it’s potentially good enough for a series, seriously. I love getting lost under a focusing cloth.
Town Scene
Happy, Texas
Aspect Ratios
Focal lengths and aspect ratios correlate. A 50mm needs a narrower 4:5 to emphasize relationships between foregrounds and back grounds, and on the other side, a 28mm does better with a wider 3:2 because it emphasizes side-to-side relationships.
In the Moment
It transitions from play to art as we age, and in learning, it continues.
Red Truck
Marfa, Texas
Lightweight
The less we make photography about something, the more it accommodates.
Pond
Midland, Texas
Interstate Twenty
The heat off the asphalt is a physical thing out here, but the horizon stays wide open. I had driven out to Monahans just to check on a building I remembered—to see if it was still standing the way it lived in my head. I found it, recorded it, but the day felt too open to turn back around.
2nd near West County Rd.
Odessa, Texas
Monahans Motel
Monahans, Texas
Working Town
If people knew you were out there making pictures, you’d probably get in worse trouble, a proper way of going wrong. Odessa is a working town, and everyone needs a good way of going wrong.
Taking or Making
In photographing landscapes, places, and found environments, perhaps the difference between making and taking lives in the focal length, where a 35mm takes, and a 50mm makes.
Roebling Suspension Bridge
Cincinnati, Ohio
Roadside Bluebonnets
Goldthwaite, Texas
Enjoying the Day
Interesting places exist wherever we look long enough. Odessa is a real place, nothing touristy about it, so thoroughly palpable that it’s utterly clueless about itself in a good way, and that’s why I stay.
Gas Station
Glenrio, Texas
Keep Going
If you think it’s bad now, it used to be worse. That’s why I’m not too worried. You are a part of the change you would like to see.
Layered
A 50mm lens is more front-to-back than side-to-side and compresses things together, perfect for layering foregrounds over backgrounds — more deadpan than a 35.
Broken (please use other door)
A sign at a convenience store says, “broken, please use other door,” and then apologizes for the inconvenience.