savannah photographic workshop

Sittin’ in the mornin’ sun
I’ll be sittin’ when the evenin’ come
Watching the ships roll in
And I watch ’em roll away again, yeah

I’m sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooh, I’m just sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Wastin’ time

“Dock of the Bay,” Otis Redding

Time is a human construct, and it is relative. I saw a show recently where two teenagers found an unprocessed roll of film and took it to the store to have it developed, rolling their eyes impatiently when the clerk pointed at the sign that said it would take 1 hour. I suppose if you’ve only known a world where you can shoot a photograph with your phone, see it immediately, and send a copy to almost anywhere in the world instantly, 1 hour may seem an eternity.

This reference point on TIME resonates with me because I lived the evolution. When I started working in photography (1965), the way you got pictures in a hurry was to have your own darkroom, but even then it would be 15-20 minutes after getting into the darkroom before you might have a print, and that still dripping wet. Most people dropped their film off at a camera or department store. From there it was picked up once a day by a courier and carried overnight to a large commercial lab somewhere (I think Charlotte is where a lot of Savannah work went). So in 3-4 days you would have your photos back.

Of course there was Polaroid, but the high per picture cost of that made it a budget buster if you shot much.

Sometime in the 80’s, innovations in compact, automated processing and printing equipment led to the “1 Hour Photo” concept, with lots of false starts and lost investments, but it did eventually become the standard as even small businesses could affordably set up in-house labs. And then customers insisted on getting 1 Hour service, even paying extra, even when they knew they would not return that quickly. We are an impatient species.

So digital capture came along, and we could see the photo as quickly as shooting it. The “instant gratification” aspect alone was enough to know it would become the dominant medium, but the important thing is, still, to slow down, and look closely.

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

I can taste the salt in the air; feel the gritty friction of sand, sweat and lotion on tender skin. Somewhere behind me there’s a murmuring of overlapping voices, like the adult conversations in a “Peanuts” movie, randomly interrupted by squawking gulls.

Temperatures in the 70’s here in February, a tease of Spring just around the corner, and this photograph, trigger memories that are real, but from infrequent experience. I always preferred the beach in winter.

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

Over the years many people have made a point of telling me what an angel Barbara is. I know her better than that, and could quibble a little, but since I mostly agree with the sentiment, I was happy to find photographic evidence of her persona.

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

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand 
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour”                    

Auguries of Innocence--William Blake

I have made thousands of close-up photographs of flowers over the years. I am hypnotized by the sinuous lines, sensuous tones, synesthetic textures, lush colors. The shallow depth of field at such acute proximity causes rapid softening; some suggestion of great mystery, just out of reach. The subject becomes an abstract for something “other.”

“Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door.” Look Homeward, Angel–Thomas Wolfe

I have been accused of eroticizing these subjects, to which I have several replies:
1) So what?
2) Georgia O’Keefe did it, so that’s pretty good company.
3) These are the reproductive parts of the plant, so it’s just documentation.
4) And, most importantly, what someone “sees” in a photograph says more about the viewer than it does about the photograph or photographer.

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

So much of what we “see” is preordained. We see what we want to see, what we expect to see, what we are ready to see, what we are looking for. But what Witches’ Brew of emotion, intellect, training, bias, and physiology conspires to cause perception? The character of the lighting here makes for a dramatic image, but does knowing it’s in Bodega Bay make it ominous?

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

Well, the decorations are down, and we are not expecting snow (more of a 10-12 year cycle for that), but it’s going to be very cold this week, for Savannah. I know, I know, most of the rest of the country will be much colder, with varying forms of precipitation. The rest of winter for us will be dreary more than cold; just gray days and penetrating, chill winds. I’m old and have intentionally thinned blood. I feel it in my bones, sometimes.

But that never lasts for more than a few days at a time, and then the sun is out, and the air is crisp, brisk, refreshing. The lower angle of the sun puts an extra edge on the built environment; the open shadows of the urban forest shimmer; and my city sparkles in this aphelion time zone. And then, very soon, it will be Saint Patrick’s Day.

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

Every day, the first light to strike the United States opens onto the coast of Maine. Each dawn, like a new year’s beginning, offers the tantalizing tease of fresh starts, a chance to renegotiate with the universe.

This week’s post is a celebration for me, the two year anniversary of starting this (mostly) weekly sharing of photographs and thoughts. I wasn’t sure at the start if I could, or would, sustain the effort to post regularly, but I did, except for a few random times when I was traveling. And I have in mind a number of images I want to share going forward, so I hope you are enjoying seeing this as much as I am doing it.

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

The room is a large oval, all soft white and gray, with a simple bench in the center, and four Monet Water Lilies murals circling the space. It felt appropriate to whisper; the place seems hallowed.

The day after the Armistice in November 1918, Monet offered the French government 8 of his Water Lilies murals as a symbol for peace. They were installed at the Musee de l’Orangerie in 1927 not long after his death.

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

Rio de Janeiro, 2019

“And crawling on the planet’s face, some insects called the human race. Lost in time. And lost in space… and meaning.” The last lines from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

It is so easy to fall into egocentric thinking, or, more accurately, non-thinking. For years I’ve sent out this holiday Solstice greeting with some attempt to offer a positivity in the lengthening of the day, the coming of more light. But if you are anywhere near this photograph’s location on the Winter’s Solstice, you are saying goodbye to your longest day, and moving into summer. My bad. I have mentioned how we begin another trip around the sun, but the notion of a starting and ending point/date is pretty arbitrary; maybe it should be the Equinox? Which one?

One of the nice things about getting older has been appreciating the liberation that can come from letting go of certitude.

Whether you are gaining or losing light, I hope you are having a good holiday season, whatever your beliefs, and I wish for you, in the New Year, at least one sometimes irritating but irrevocable, unshakeable friend whose perspective reminds you regularly that there is more than one legitimate point of view.

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

We were down one of the little Parisian side streets, in a women’s clothing shop that Barbara has such a knack for finding, places with small inventories and unique offerings. If you find something you like, and it’s your size, you know no one else will ever show up at a party with the same outfit.

This young woman was one of the staff helping Barb, and she had a great look herself. I asked her to step closer to the front window for a minute and took a couple of quick frames, because…

…I had to.

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