February 19, 1928 ~ June 22, 2009

The last few days have been some of the most difficult days of my life.

On June 22nd, we lost a lovely, beautiful, loving and simply amazing woman. Larene Pace, mother to Diane, grandmother to Jordan and mother-in-law to me, passed away and left this world with a void not to be replaced.

I’ve written this post in my head for days now, and as always, what comes out on paper is something less than I would want it to be. But to say that Larene had an impact on my life would be a disservice to the memory of a wonderful and beautiful person. In listening to the stories of the people that knew her well, and those who only knew her briefly, it’s immediately apparent that her presence made everyone better and that everyone was better off for meeting her.

I’ve never been more profoundly sad than I am today. I can’t imagine what we’ll do without her and what our lives will be as we move into the future. It’s the little things I think about, the moments taken for granted that hit me without warning when the vacant spot becomes a gaping hole.

I thought the words would flow for me as I sat down to write this post. But the truth is, that nothing I can say will remotely begin to convey what I feel, what we’ve lost and what Larene meant to all of us. As much as I want too I just can’t seem to get the words to come. The sadness is overwhelming, the emptiness never ending and the grief devastating. The world is a sadder place today without Larene here but we are all better off for having her in our lives and I’m grateful for my time with her.

Cuba: Campo Adentro

Since I was a little kid I’ve always had an interest and curiosity about other countries, cultures and people. As with many kids, at least I would imagine, I had a deep affection for National Geographic and the stories it contained. As I grew older the photographs really started to intrigue me and I started wondering how they were made and about the people actually making them.

And Cuba has always been a source of intrigue for me. Growing up in the 70’s it was a place that was seen as a threat to the US, specifically a nuclear threat. Well, at least that’s my recollection. Anyway, it’s a place I always thought of and wanted to go to at some point.

And I did actually make it to Cuba while I was in the Navy. But it was strictly off limits for us to venture outside the base. In essence, while I’ve been on the island I’ve never seen Cuba.

David Allen Harvey has a wonderful book on Cuba that I own and I love it. But I recently received a new book on Cuba by Susan S. Bank and I really love this book.

I first saw images from it in the latest edition of Lenswork. Besides the images, the thing that caught my interest was when she started this body of work. She started this work in 2002, well into her sixties, and it’s a wonderful example of producing great work regardless of your stage of life. As I approach my fifties I’m thinking of this a lot.

The book is top notch in the production department. It’s self published and Mrs. Bank spared no expense on the quality. She’s obviously proud of the work and the book shows this.

The images, at least to me anyway, are edited nicely and it’s quite obvious that she is close and connected to the community she has documented in Cuba. She has taken the time to get to know these people and to really share that knowledge with viewers of her images.

I highly recommend this book. And by the way, it was produced with one camera and one lens all on black and white film. Just a lovely book and I’m glad to have it in my collection.

Travel

In the last few years my business travel has increased in intensity to a point where it is less than fun. Unfortunately, it’s a necessity that can’t be avoided if I want to do my job properly.

As I’ve mentioned before I take the camera on almost every trip. Sometimes it makes it out of the bag and sometimes it doesn’t. In looking at the hotel images I’ve written about previously, I’ve recently noticed a bit of a theme, especially in the color stuff. Whereas the B&W stuff is about the shapes and forms the color work shows a bit of the loneliness the road is really about. This image in particular shows the “glamour” of traveling. It’s the view outside of some nondescript hotel in Seattle.

I post this image because I’m in the process of getting my images into a more coherent group of images, get a new website and develop direction. With the help of Dan Milnor I think I have a start.

If you haven’t been to Dan’s blog please check it out. His photography, especially his B&W stuff, is something I aspire too. His writing on the blog is thought provoking from a photography industry viewpoint, at times hysterical and always entertaining. It’s a daily read for me.

Coming Home

These two wonderful women are the loves of my life and without them I have no clue where I would be. But I have a sense it would be in a significantly less of a good place than I am today.

I try to make more images around the house but I’m usually met with the rolling of eyes and the inevitable “What are you doing?” But occasionally I get an image I like. Most of them will never see the light of day or beyond the walls of our home anyway. But this one makes me smile because Jordan comes home this week and Diane and I are both very happy campers.

She’s in finals week and will soon finish her first year of college. It’ll be good to have her home and it’ll be fun to see what images I will be able to sneak in over the summer.

Southwest Desert

Not being a California native, it took me some time to get used to the vast open landscape. But the desert, despite it’s desolation, was instantly a place in which I felt comfortable and connected.

When I first moved to California over a decade ago, it was to escape the comforts of my native south. I say native south, because I really didn’t reside in any one place for a long enough period of time to ever call myself a native of a particular state. But what I knew, where I grew up, and in large part what formed my world viewpoint was developed throughout the southern states.

The terrain was something I was intimately connected with but I can remember a particular flight, somewhere out west although I can’t remember specifically where, and seeing the snow covered mountains. This wasn't the first time, but it was certainly in a way I had never seen them before from the window seat of some cattle car of an aircraft. I can vividly remember thinking about walking above the clouds on the ridges where no one could touch me or see me. I could be alone in the vastness that I saw from the air if I could just get to those peaks and valleys.

But life, being what it is, has to be lived. And that’s where the desert comes into play for me. There are two places that have had a profound calming affect on me in my lifetime. And they both were exposed to me at particularly difficult times and close to one another in time span. The North Georgia mountains and the Southwestern Desert, two completely different places provide me with a calm ground, places that transport me from wherever uncomfortable place I might be into a place where what matters most becomes visible. They are safe havens, spiritual places providing the grounding that I need.

Diane and I spent a few days out in Borrego this past February and it was a great trip. Just the two of us in the Airstream, alone out in the vastness of the desert. It snowed and prevented us from going to our original destination, but as we always try to do, we made the best of it and headed to another place. When we got into Borrego Springs the rain was going sideways, it was cold and windy and I needed to get set up. I did so in the current weather conditions and once finished headed inside. No sooner had I headed inside then the sun came out, the rain and wind stopped and it became glorious.

Luckily for me the weather returned. I made this image as we drove and the clouds gathered. It’s certainly not a great image, but as some of my favorite images do, it brings to bear wonderful memories and reminds me of what’s important.