Back in the Keys after a week away, back at work. A few pictures to celebrate our cold windy sunny return.
I like the Transit Loop which used to be "Free and Frequent" and was then changed to require a dollar per ride so now the tourist buses traveling in an Old Town loop are simply "...and frequent." Slightly odd looking.
I hope you will forgive my obsession with giant fronds drooping all over city fences. They are in my face and I cannot resist them, in the style of Edward Weston, an extraordinary photographer. I find myself attracted less to people than to still life pictures. I went the same way on vacation chasing shadows and shapes. Weston was a genius as a quick Google search will reveal.
Weston took pictures of banal objects, fruit, vegetables and still life, not to mention humans too, and rendered them extraordinarily abstract and yet simultaneously dense. I read a biography of Ansel Adams who crossed paths with Weston and ended up supporting him at the end of his life as the genius Weston was a photographer and didn't have the genius for publicity that made Adams a wealthy man and widely known by the end of his life.
I have no facility for self promotion so I have a rather soft spot for Weston though I am glad my wife pushed me to get properly pensioned for the last stage of my life as living in a van voluntarily seems infinitely preferable to being forced to do it by dint of circumstances. Not everyone is so lucky in these months of weird. and sudden change.
I wonder how cooks and chefs are making out across the country these days, the artists of the kitchen, many of whom find redemption from a life of dissipation in cooking commercially. In the usual way our society lurches from fad to fad and for a while there cooking was the highest of social and artistic attainments. Now one has to wonder how the artists of cookery are making out in this viral recession. I can't help but think that losing a generation of chefs would be a huge loss, not just in terms of cooking but in the artistry involved in understanding our tastes pushing boundaries and creating beauty and peace at tables across the country. Well, not right now they aren't. Bummer.
I really like the way Key West looks with all the plant growth brought on by relatively cheap abundant piped water from the mainland. Old photos of Key West show much less ornamental shrubbery as rainwater was too precious to pour onto plants. This is a thoroughly modern scene:
Good to be back and wander. Rusty is always happy to be home, but there again he doesn't have to go to work the idle bugger.
6 comments:
Lovely set of still shots, Michael. Very inspiring. Cheers and Merry Christmas, SonjaM
You too in the home of Christmas traditions.
Everything in your photographs looks preferable to the breezy 17F here today. However, no mountains or winding roads. I guess there's always a trade-off.
Hope you and your wife are having a great Christmas and holiday season. Stay safe!
Thanks. you too. riding in snow is not for me. Living in snow isnt for me either....
You have a strong eye for still life images and capture them very well. Good B&W conversion.
Ansel Adams didn't exactly have it easy financially. It was hard to make money in photography and even harder today.
From https://www.anseladams.com/ansel-adams-bio/
Recognition, however, did not alleviate Adams’s financial pressures. In a letter dated 6 August 1935 he wrote Weston, “I have been busy, but broke. Can’t seem to climb over the financial fence. On 2 July 1938 he wrote to friend David McAlpin, “I have to do something in the relatively near future to regain the right track in photography. I am literally swamped with “commercial” work — necessary for practical reasons, but very restraining to my creative work.” Although Adams became an unusually skilled commercial photographer, the work was intermittent, and he constantly worried about paying the next month’s bills. His financial situation remained precarious and a source of considerable stress until late in life.
Ken in Cleveland
I'm sorry if I was misleading about Adams. I read the unauthorized biography by his assistant at the end of his life. As I read it he became very wealthy at the end of his life, ironically, because he attracted a fan who was a skilled investor and salesman who did the selling for him, based on the fame he had accumulated. So he died very wealthy and I know that there is the belief, which I once shared, that he lived very wealthy which as we both agree is quite incorrect. But boy he worked hard! And had a crappy durable marriage to a woman who would have preferred more stable income and a more present husband! He lived what I see as a very difficult life dedicated to his art and fame and not his own comfort. I'm glad you added that because I'd hate to have given the wrong impression Thanks for the compliments about my pictures but I know I am a crappy businessman so I have dedicated my middle age to securing my old age thanks to my wife's wisdom so I can chase pictures without having to rely on them for money.
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