Hongcun, China, 2012

Why the residue of a poster stripped from a rough stone wall? In the old village of Hongcun, filming site of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and a UNESCO World Heritage site, from the Ming and Qing dynasties (1300s to 1900s), why is that my choice of subjects?

Part of the reason is Aaron Siskind. (https://www.wikiart.org/en/aaron-siskind) Abstract Expressionism in paintings is interesting, but Siskind’s mid-20th century abstract expressionist photographs were a revelation in seeing for me. Someone could take the paramount documentation tool, and make non-objective pictures. The objects and ideas you discover hidden in the patterns are personal; they are yours and multiply the longer you stare. Documentation can tell a great story, but abstraction lets the viewer go anywhere their imagination can take them.

After identifying a possible primary subject, that bright red slash, how did I get to this particular framing, balancing the visual weights implied by line, shape, texture, tone, color?

I don’t know. After going through infinite variations of micro-movements–in/out, left/right, up/down–one spot felt more right than any other. Of course that might have been because it was more physically comfortable, and have nothing to do with aesthetics, but I can live with that.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index