As my beautiful green, abundant lawn turns to toast, and the turkey's and peacocks are all running for cover from the heat, I thought it only appropriate that I open myself up for further dissection. It is time once again to take the heat and travel not to Washington, where the frigid air of inhospitable, mean spirited people abide, but rather to the warmth of my desk, where Mr. S meets Mr. Smith once again. Mr.S: Before we begin, I noticed that you are a mixture of formality and informality. Is that correct? Mr. Smith: You're a Genius! How did you know? You're wise beyond your years. I have always loved things in their right place. I also enjoy a certain civility and elegance to life. One of the great treats I provide myself and family is to have my sheets changed 3 times a week. The feel of newly pressed sheets is one of the great luxuries of the world. I would hope my pictures are a mixture of great style, formality, and elegance, with a tinge of whimsy and spontaneity. This is the perfect cocktail. Mr. S: Obviously you believe that your early family travails and antidotes provide an insight into your pictures today, but why? Mr. Smith: Good questions Mr. S. I like your line of inquiry. The simple answer to your question is that I most definitely do. As Socrates, most eloquently put it over two thousand years ago, only to be reaffirmed by Augustine, Hegel, Kant, and host of the greatest minds leading to my all time favorite on the hit parade, Master Freud, "An unexamined life is not worth living." It is my belief that everything has a purpose, from my choosing photography, to working in Black and White, from my compositional sense, to the subject matter, to the perspective, and distance from the subject, and the subject themselves, are ALL a reflection of who I am, which is based on where I have been physically and emotionally in my life. To truly understand one's expression (in my case photographs) there is no better way to know me than to know the life behind the pictures. Mr. S: You seem to be talking to two different audiences; those who are interested in photography, and those simply looking for a good life story. Is that your intention? Mr. Smith: I have heard this distinction before, and it is definitely not my intention. It is my purpose, perhaps I should say, my passion, to speak to everyone who struggles to bring forth something noble or special that resides within them. I know photographers are always attached to the nitty gritty, the how of things. How you made that show, what film, what lens, what process, and I am more than willing (as Ansel Adams and others were very willing with me) to tell them the life of a particular picture. There is no question that this is interesting, but I tell you, Mr S, for the…

Gone fishing. See you next Monday.

I have always loved obscuring the face, the entry to the soul. I have done this with masks, hats, flags, doorways, gestures, pictures, etc., but never have I done it with a lampshade. Years ago for the cover of New York Time's Magazine we made a lampshade hat that looked both like a hat and a lampshade, but I had never found a real lampshade that would work until recently. This is one of those pictures I had often dreamed about previously, but it was not until this past winter that I actually found another picture from my dreams. My aspirations and my dreams from years past seem to be an important insight into what lies before me. Before I get into the minor logistics of this picture, one must ask oneself “why would he ever want to make this picture?” Sure it is funny, but to me it is more than that. I have been doing similar tricks for 45 years, so what obscure corner of my cerebral cortex would need or desire to express such a fanciful image. Although my pictures are often referred to as surreal, and I have been included in many shows where surrealism was the main focus, I am not sure this is how I see my pictures. I perceive my pictures as playing with time and space (and I am sure this is the quality that people perceive as surreal) but mostly I see my pictures as funny, and to use the most vulgar expression from the 21st century art world, beautiful and romantic. Please close your eyes and shut your ears for I have referred to the unmentionables. I seek beauty, sentiment (not sentimentality) and passion in an era where any important of significant art critic would cringe with disdain at these terms. Any piece of art that is beautiful would never be considered important and to add romanticism on top is the total stamp of insignificance, unless it is cloaked in an intellectual cerebral mask, which can be talked about, so that no one except themselves can understand it. Well, I don't know what drives the engine of my little green fuse, but as soon as I walked into this large estate in upstate New York, I knew immediately that I wanted to take a picture under this lampshade that hung low over a massive table in the front foyer, designed by my favorite American architect Stanford White. But why do this? I have done similar things before. It was a full day of shooting, and it was not part of the assignment. But somehow I felt it important to return to that part of my subconscious, which despite my attempts to elevate, continually since my youth, has surfaced over and over again. The simple fact is, as I have mentioned before, a good part of myself does not like me very much. I do not like to be looked at, regarded, studied, as this seems to accentuate this problem. This…

I am inclined to think Carly Simon had it right about many people, including some of my neighbors, as well as many people I have photographed throughout my career. There is nothing wrong with this. In fact it is simply part of the human condition to aspire to importance and power, when the truth is we feel powerless and unimportant. I will spare you my theological discourse on worshipping graven idols, but I will not spare you from a story that happened to me a long time ago in a far distant galaxy called Phoenix. I had been asked by The Wall Street Journal to photograph a number of CEO's for an advertising campaign. The campaign championed the fact that for CEO's one of the first things they read in the morning was The Wall Street Journal. The agency that was producing this campaign had done intensive and extensive research, spared no expense, in finding out that The Wall Street Journal was a must read to all these titans of industry. I could have spared them the expense, for in all my travels to distant shores, photographing senior management; I had always found a well read Journal lying prominently on their desks. Just think if I could have confirmed to the paper about the importance of The Journal, and added the agency research to my fees, I could be now be driving in the Bentley I covet instead of wishful dreaming. Anyway, I am roaming away from my story and I need to hone in on an important paradigm about life and men. One of these men I was asked to photograph happened to own a good chunk of the city of Phoenix. He was a CEO of a major corporation in Phoenix, and as usual his name will be omitted to protect the guilty. As was my fashion, I convinced him to meet with me the evening before the shoot to discuss the photograph. Now, having been born and breed on the east coast (and having been called an eastern elitist by another CEO, who informed me he wanted me to leave Idaho as soon as possible) I have found myself always looking for that patina that history provides. Sometimes it can be in a weathered face, or at least  in the architecture. On the East coast, particularly in New England, there is a semblance of history preserved. Ideally, I am always looking at America for what lies in Rome, Paris, London, etc., I am looking for history. As I make my way westward starting from Europe, I find myself more and more despondent, as history exposed in life and architecture gets less and less prevalent. In fact, as you get far enough west, history and architecture is understood as what happened a year or two ago and is generally not worth preserving. Let's bulldoze it down and build something new. In the new and transient culture of America, that which is appealing to many, is appalling to me.  On…

We're out of the office today, wishing our Nation a happy birthday, with hamburgers and hot dogs and fireworks galore.  We wish a wonderful Independence Day weekend to all, and will promptly return this Wednesday July 6th, with a fresh blogpost.