This is a series of visual studies of the shapes, sizes, patterns, designs and symmetries of buildings, structures, machines and nature itself. The curves, sharp edges and repeating patterns take on new and often surreal forms with the additional play of light and shadow.
Everywhere I look are some of the most wonderful and fun images to photograph - whether the soft curves of an egg or the wild architectural design of a Frank Gehry inspiration.
The eastern foothills of the Alberta Rockies has always been a very special, almost spiritual place for me.
While photographing the long abandoned Brazeau Colleries I stepped from the harsh midday sun into the derelict forge and adjoining wash house. The most welcoming presence of a soft, almost pastel, glow enveloped me. Reflected sunlight from the narrow row of windows high above my head mixed with the cool shadows and the century old patina of the walls was a gift of light - perfect light.
It was like the long forgotten, hardened miners that worked, changed and washed in this place were calling out it's hidden beauty.
I was the one being called to find and photograph it as a memorial. These are the memorials.
The Painted Wall
Unlike the mythical and invisible wall of the Nurikabe, a Japanese yokai, this is a real wall. Once painted and many times repainted this now deacayed, cracked, weathered and stained wall has created a montage of images. Rivers, forests, mountains, animals, flowers, people - almost magically alive and revealing more of its hidden beauty but only to the eyes of your imagination.
Look beyond the obvious and let your inner child loose to pretend, to see, to play, to imagine - to have fun. Lot's of fun.
The phrase "mind's eye" refers to the human ability to visualize, i.e., to experience visual mental imagery; in other words, one's ability to "see" things with the mind.
What do you see? Look. Stare. See the figures, the faces, the scenes, the ephemera. Let your mind go. Have fun hunting and finding. The titles might lead or mislead. Once seen, your mind will not forget and will help you see more. Maybe standing on your head will help or possibly turning your monitor ninety degrees to the right or left is the answer. Enjoy the journey.
Byways, Alleyways, Windows and Doors
I have been told I have a fascination for windows and doors. It's not really the actual windows or doors that fascinate me but what's in them, behind them, their reflections and where they can lead me and my imagination.
The byways and especially the alleyways have that same intrigue. People like animals, leave their mark or sign and it is those signs and their ephemera, that truly attracts my attention and the focus of my lens. It's the mannequins and displays, signs, art, graffiti, the tell tale suggestions of 'behind closed doors' along with subtle and more obvious metaphors and juxtapositions that keep me returning. Not for the ugly or the beauty but to capture a question, bring a little smile or even cultivate a story or a remembrance of a time past.
I have a couple of extra cameras - why don't you join me as you wander through these images. Don't forget to focus before you press.
There is nothing more beautiful, sensuous, colourful and evocative than the natural.
The shapes, patterns, textures and colors stir the senses and the imagination. Animals in clouds, eyes in knotty stumps, faces in a rock wall and reflections in a pool - our mind creates these special images that often others don't see.
Mind Garden is a collection of natural objects as my mind sees them.There is more than meets the eye.
Let your imagination go.
Junk yards, abandoned buildings, old machinery and ramshackle storage areas have always been a fascination to me.
One such attraction is an old converted auction barn. The broken animal pens are crammed with thousands of old bicycles, machinery, parts, vehicles and boats in various states of repair. A trove of abandoned treasures and this photographer's image paradise.
Visual metaphors and juxtapositions abound. If these objects could only talk what stories would they tell?
Let your imagination go as we stroll around the yard and climb inside the ancient pens.
The Kootenay Plains area of western Alberta was the traditional territory of the Blackfoot First Nations people. In isolated aspen groves are small areas of prayer flags or bolts of coloured cloth tied around the trunks of the aspen trees. They are part of the religious ceremonial traditions of the Blackfoot. Left to decay back to nature the aspens are said to carry the prayers to the Great Spirit.
With each of the images in the collection I am trying to impart a feeling of their tradition, emotion, dance and spirit.
A rhythm of lens, camera and body motion along with lots of patience and repetition are part of creating the effect of each of these prayer flag images.