Yesterday, I was reviewing a recent issue of Lenswork magazine. Issue #94 featured a photographer named Mark Singles who had a series of landscape photos that were frankly, stunning. Many of the images were of shrouded in fog, giving a soft quality to the images.
Curious, I read the artist's statement. I learned that Mr. Singles is employed as a director of promotional films, including commercials. I read in his statement that his work overwhelmed his visual sensibilities, leaving him burnt out.
His cure for this burn out was to spend one day a week in isolation, frequently spending the day walking the hills around his San Francisco home.
When he eventually started documenting what he saw, he limited himself to one photo per outing. Thus, the collection of photos I was now looking at was born.
I was intrigued by the concept. I am by nature gregarious. I spend more time in search of company than isolation and revel in contact with others. I am a relationship builder. But I asked myself, is that always the case?
My one answer was of course, no. I prefer to fish in isolation. Even when I am fishing with someone, it usually at opposite ends of the bank or bar. When I am deprived of the splendid isolation of fishing, I find it impacts me in odd ways. The normal flow of work and home life stops working; I become less confident, less at ease with myself.
So today, when I was fishing, I decided I would try and document that need for isolation by making only one photo per outing. For those of you that know my normal method, you will know how hard this is. Even this morning, there were at least a dozen images I could have made.
Being July 4, the river has been in flood for the past month or so and is only now starting to come down. I found this image on top of a log jam I was walking over on my way back to the car. The two pieces of driftwood atop the log were quite small. I only just caught them out of the corner of my eye. They could not have been carried there, but rather, were carefully placed.
In my first attempt to document the nature of isolation, it is ironic that I should seek out evidence of other people treading the same path as mine.
It will be interesting to see if the next image has the same influences...
