I actually started questioning my own sanity the other day. There's nothing like spending many hours by your self in a basement, staring at the concrete floors, to make you think you might be nuts. But the stained concrete floors just happen to be the subject matter for my latest project, Tales from the Underground.
It's not just the loneliness and the concrete floor. It's also the results of the project--highly abstract photographs that look more like paintings than photographs. So I asked my good friend, photographer Steven Fibonacci, for some free psychological counseling. Was I going mad?
"Tell me, what is any different about these shots compared to Mosaic Canyon, random geology, or the backs of gravestones, or building sides? Answer...nothing.
"There are a handful of us who dig this kind of art, whether it be painting or photography. The rest might not 'get it'...but then...who are you doing your art for anyway ? I think you do art to satisfy yourself and to share with those who dig it. You have enough 'mainstream' type shots in your repertoire to appeal to the masses, but don't shirk your responsibility to yourself and to us abstract fans by not including these pieces."
Thanks, Steve. But if I'm ever wrongly accused of something and the prospects for being acquitted are dim, I can always point back to Tales from the Underground as my insanity defense. It's nice to have something like that in your back pocket, just in case of emergency.
[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005 ]
