Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Day, 2009

Some photos from today. Sometimes it strikes me how we can see so much beauty and so much ugliness all within a short distance. Within less than a mile radius, I found more pelicans than I'd ever seen at one time, followed by water polluted by nearby boats. Amidst it all, we find that just simply watering the grass can give us rainbows, and there is artistic value in a family simply walking on the sidewalk.







































The Zen of Street Photograhy: The Beginning


Somewhere between the spontenaity of Cartier-Bresson, the vivid realism of Nan Goldin, and the lightheartedness of Pentti Sammallahti, lies me, the digital guy at a printing company by day, and photographer by imagination. I suppose this blog is an attempt to change the last part.

With the goal in mind to document the inner city with the same reverence that countless others have recorded majestic landscapes, I bring you "The Zen of Street Photography." the only way that I can truly record urbania with reverence is to maintain one key element; the fact that you just can't plan this stuff. The city is constantly shifting and changing, each moment nearly indistinguishable from the few that preceded it. Yet, in all of our hustling around, we miss this, mistaking the nearly infinite unique moments with monotony.

So it is with my cameras, nicknamed my "Teddy Bears" since they go almost everywhere with me, that I will try to seek out and freeze the best examples of these fleeting and priceless moments. Of course, no photographer or artist can produce anything that doesn't have our own vision attached to it, at least in some small way. So my goal is both artistic and spiritual. In addition to developing my vision artistically, I will attempt to use my "zen" to bring them to you in a way that is unspoiled, that they will be shown for exactly what they are.

I hope you’ll enjoy the blog and the photos that come along with it.

TM Cleland

Christmas Day, 2009