Looking at the Light

I'm going to start putting a new quotation on the home page of my website each month. I have been accumulating quotations about art -- mostly photography -- for a very long time. I have enough to last me for several lifetimes. This month's is by Emmet Gowin. It is from the introduction of his self-titled retrospective (Aperture 2013). We heard him speak at Portland Art Museum's endowed Minor White Lecture a couple of years back. I'm a big fan of his earlier work and he is an engaging speaker.

There are things in your life that only you will see, stories that only you will hear.

If you don't tell them or write them down, if you don't make the picture,

these things will not be seen, these things will not be heard.

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One of the better aspects of our not-so-new home is taking the Link light rail into the city rather than driving. I not only have to deal with traffic and parking but I can sit there will my mind half-disconnected and look out the train window. I enjoy chatting up people -- mostly who board the train at the airport -- who look like they need some advice from a local on how to find something, usually because they are staring confusedly at a tourist map.

This young woman and two friends were up from Portland for a weekend of frisking and hitting the night spots. The light on her face and braid was so beautiful that I chatted her up and asked for a photograph. I hope she sends me her email address so I can send her a print.