Diptych Defying Duality

Photography

I'm based in Oregon and wander about the west discovering remnants of the past.

this series evolved over many years of travel

I use diptychs – placing photos side by side to show similarities found in nature’s many constructs. When photographing dissimilar images, I find certain characteristics in each of the two that relate to the other. I am lifted by a fading duality into a feeling of unity – I am invited to join the symbiotic duo in a dance – in this newly formed triadic experience. I witness color, forms, texture & lines coming together. It is a transcendent state when all ordinary thought is dispensed with – I am befriending all of nature that now includes the human race.
I photograph northwest homesteads and their artifacts that lie on the vast western American landscape. I listen to their stories allowing metaphors to appear. Like a chrysalis awaiting its new form. I love to witness the aging and weathering of all things always changing, becoming anew, the human face – hands – eyes – animals – metal – glass – barns – machinery and on and on. Without these ongoing transformations nothing can exist. Without death there can be no life. Many times, images are not found close but far away from each other, yet they share a common story – an affirming synchronicity, a distant seeing.
I see hidden related messages in the fissuring of the desert floor, the rippling of water, birch trees, rock petroglyphs and boxcar graffiti – all living remnants held by earth’s many landscapes, by a consciousness that permeates everything, that lies and is never found static. For this gift that allows for change and for the collective spirit that energizes all. I am forever grateful the earth will never run out of beauty – all is beauty – all is beauty – may we find the time to notice.