I live in New Mexico, where just about everything looks pleasing to the eye and camera lens. Lately, I've been drawn to the shimmering surfaces of mountain streams, which fragment into colorful abstract images as water slips across mineral-laden rocks.
Some of my photographs are pure impressionistic mosaics created by shattered water acting as hundreds of tiny lenses, each bringing up a unique image of the streambed below. In others, dead leaves and living vegetation are seen through the watery lenses as they're pushed and [
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I live in New Mexico, where just about everything looks pleasing to the eye and camera lens. Lately, I've been drawn to the shimmering surfaces of mountain streams, which fragment into colorful abstract images as water slips across mineral-laden rocks.
Some of my photographs are pure impressionistic mosaics created by shattered water acting as hundreds of tiny lenses, each bringing up a unique image of the streambed below. In others, dead leaves and living vegetation are seen through the watery lenses as they're pushed and pulled by the current.
Looking at these streambed photos, you can't help but be reminded of the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who wondered at a world in flux and famously said that no one can step in the same stream twice. Each of my photographs illustrates that idea. Each captures a single moment of a constantly changing streambed surface that will never appear exactly the same as it does at that instant.
Philosophers today would go further and say that the water flowing over the streambed is a metaphor for reality. The rocky streambed is the real world that you can never see accurately and directly, but only as an imperfect image distorted by the reality of the water, which is constantly changing.
Mystics might instead see dreams in these streambed photos. The word 'bed' reminds us of sleep while the word 'stream' suggests the flow and change of dreams. Meditate quietly on these photos and you may be surprised at the myriad of images that emerge from the flow.
My Equipment.
All of my Streambed Art images are shot with a Canon EOS 5D, which is a 12.8 megapixel digital camera, and printed with vivid pigment inks on acid-free, lignin-free art paper. [
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