Rising from the snow a spent, stale stem traces a line through the air. Alive with a seasons passing, shaped by that seasons passing, to finally be broken by the weight of a wet snow. Each line unique, chosen and placed. These are lines sampled. The lines of soft, frosted grass or hard dry stems. Leaves too carry their seasons marks. The holes of insects, tears of wind, scars of disease. Each unique, each chosen and placed.

Seen from the car a crossing of branches down the road sticks in my mind. The grass waving in the wind, mingling yet never merging. A splash on a rock. A carpet of leaves marked with spots, withered away to almost nothing; fragile yet woven with association.

I am charmed by the ordinary, and have been photographing it for years in various ways. Images of household objects, the contents of middens, dry bones, these leaves and grass. Now I am exploring ordinary experiences, emotions -our ordinary feelings- and making images which act for me as parallels to them.  I am looking at line, not to draw a picture, but to make a picture of lines. Form first. The ‘subject’ grass or fern stems or horsetails or leaves. The pictures are ‘about’ the everyday experiences we have. Standing at the sink getting a child's hug, or noticing a look in someone's eye. Becoming aware you are dreaming. That moment of waking. I am aiming for an image that has the capacity to remind one of something long forgotten. A taste, a smell, a sensation, a time and place. These images are made to evoke feelings or images like a line of poetry. Visual kisses, embraces, laughs, winks.

These images are made with a wooden view camera, mainly on 8x10” film. When the size of the subject requires more bellows extension than my ceiling or camera will allow I’ll shoot onto 4x5” or 3x4” film. Objects are arranged on a sheet of glass over an old x-ray viewer and lit with tungsten lights. Prints are gelatin silver.

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