Went on a walk in a nature preserve today with dad and met Phil, a guy who carves roosters and other things out of small pieces of wood. This rooster was going to be a gift for a good woman friend of his. He purposely found the piece of wood for this rooster on her favorite hill. Good luck, Phil!
When I arrived in Uganda I spent a couple night in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, and then headed North to Lira, a town where I slept before heading to Alebtong the next day.
The Lira Hotel was the safest in town but the first night there I wondered. The lights were dim and in the hallway and entrance to the building were seated guards with handguns. Nothing ever happened or probably ever does. The north is much safer now than it used to be.
The best part of the Lira Hotel was that you could eat a dinner of rice and cooked banana (called matooke — almost like sliced potatoes) for 3,500 UGX ($1.90 USD). After eating I would go next door and buy a couple of juice boxes, usually passion fruit and something else. I’d fall asleep with my window open but kept the screen in place to keep mosquito out. It didn’t matter because they would somehow always get in. Outside my window would be dance music, people laughing and drinking long into the night.
I made this photograph the next morning. It’s not a great photograph by any means but it was one of the first I made while in Uganda.
Lira Hotel, Lira, Uganda, 2009
I’m hitting the road in a couple weeks to see friends, make new personal work, and freelance. I always enjoy long drives when I travel. I like a mix of driving by myself and with others. A good pair of sunglasses and a cup of coffee (1 sugar, no milk) are essential to start a morning or evening drive. Many people listen to books on tape while driving but I only listen to music or nothing at all. More often than not I find clarity while on the road, watching the landscape as it goes by, embarking on a grand adventure.
Minnow, Southold, New York, 2005
I started out in search of ordinary things
How much of a tree bends in the wind
I started telling the story without knowing the end
I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again
Something to be seen was passing over and over me
Well it seemed like the routine case at first
With the death of the shadow came a lightness of verse
But the darkest of nights, in truth, still dazzles
And I woke myself until I’m frazzled
Jim Cain by Bill Callahan
Image © Joanna Newsom
I’ve also updated my website with the portraits I made while on the road for Pause, to Begin.
Erika Larsen, Chester, Maryland, 2009
“View in a room would be comprised of 10 -12 30×30 landscape photographs that have a dreamy, mystical quality. They would initially be exhibited in public areas of the hospital that are easily accessed by patients, caregivers, visitors, and hospital personnel. The photographs would then be hung on the bare walls of patient’’s rooms in the intensive care unit. According to a nurse in the unit patients often become claustrophobic in this small space cluttered with medical equipment. She felt that landscape photographs could significantly improve the patient”’’s state of mind and calm their anxiety.”
Read more here.
It’s important to take a break from a major body of work. I’ve been doing this regularly with the work I made in Alebtong, Uganda. Below is a good example of why it’s important.
I have been struggling with making the photograph of these 3 girls the way I want it to look. A few weeks ago I knew it didn’t look the way I wanted it to. It seemed lifeless and the toning was keeping the photograph from living on the level it wants to live on. This afternoon I decided to reapproach the photograph and am happy with where I began and where I finished.
I like when things fall into place after taking time away.
Before
After
“If we spill a drop of red sauce on a white shirt, we easily will notice it. If the shirt were a busy plaid, we might not. Most of us are so disengaged from ourselves — stressed, depressed, overworked, and so on — that we look at ourselves and see plaid shirts. But that can change if we take note of what’s new and different about the world and ourselves. When we notice new things, we come mindful, and mindfulness begets more mindfulness. The more mindful we become, the more we see ourselves as white shirts and the easier it is to find the red spot and remove it.”
from Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility.
