THE ESOTERIC PHOTOGRAPHER

This week's pick is Goin' Nowhere.

While sitting on the side of the street shooting mailboxes, I was patiently waiting for traffic to break (we photographers need to learn a great deal of patience), glancing to the left, to the left, to the left (it was a one way street), watching as one car after another rolled over the blacktop (might have been cobblestone - was in an old part of town), and as I'm looking, there's the bike sitting there, locked onto the post of a street sign, and it dawns on me as I'm waiting for the traffic break, that the chain and petal of this bike would make a great shot.

So I turn more to the left, eye to the viewfinder, and there's a flat rear tire, which means the bike isn't going anywhere (the lock just ensured that it wouldn't be carried away).

What's all this about. There's story here. From the moment I began photography, it has always been stressed to know the story you're telling with your shot. Well, my artist's statement is very basic.

I don't know why I take the photographs that I do. Something catches my eye; something touches my soul. I shoot. It's that simple.

Therefore, I often don't tell a story. I don't always know what the story is. Maybe the story is from a past life (I take a lot of old world shots, images that come from a time before I was born...or I make them into images that come from a time before I was born). When I see these things, something shifts inside of me; I have to capture it. I don't know why, I just know I have to capture it.

But Goin' Nowhere has a story. The tire is flat, it's locked to the sign post. It's going nowhere. End of story.

Ah, such is the life of the esoteric photographer.