(Above is one of my 'photoshop sketches' of this one.)
I don't know... is this a dead end, or isn't it?
I'm not sure. I'm not sure it's the right title for the image, but I don't have a better one.
I guess it could be a dead end... or... you could drive right on thru the opening, couldn't you?
(But you better not be yakking on a cell phone, or texting, if you are gonna negotiate this road!)
And if you did drive thru the opening, where would you be then?
Too many questions, too few answers. I like it that way.
You're not gonna find too many hard and fast answers in a place where rocks turn into clouds, are you?
Sometimes my prints are a riddle, even to me.
I wrote a statement of sorts, 25+ years ago, which remains true, and that's surprising to me.
I don't whether it means I am on a 'steady and true course'... or whether I am stuck in the mud.
Whatever it is, it is.
(Fortunately, I have a 'better than part-time' day job, and some inheritance income, I don't have to worry about paying the bills w/ my photo work, I can do as I please, & follow my muse. I didn't plan it that way, but am glad it has worked out the way it has.
You won't catch me driving a Jaguar...but you won't stumble over me begging for a change on the streets of SF, either. :-) )
The statement goes like this:
"I think it was Robert Rauschenberg (correct me, someone/anyone, if my attribution is wrong) who said it best - " It starts by YOU telling the picture what it will be -- in the end, THE PICTURE tells you what IT will be...".
I feel like I take that approach..... Not through any 'great design', or dogmatic adherence, ... it's just the way that comes 'naturally'.... and that is all I am interested in.
I collect negatives by taking myself, and simple camera, to places I love - the California coast, and desert - and start walking.....and .. "things happen" ....
I spend a lot of time with my proof sheets, and in a small room, under a dim red bulb. I'm obviously interested in things metaphysical - beyond that, it's up to the viewer to decide what's going on.
( If I haven't figured them out yet, (and I haven't, not *really*), why should I presume to explain them to anyone else?)
Many of the pictures just seem to 'happen', because the individual negatives are 'looking' for each other.
I'm just a chaperone, and a really loose one at that......
...But those were always the best kind of parties, right? "
As usual, more/larger images on a page at my website:
www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2009/DeadEnd/index.html
