Lower Owens River, 2007

I love Eastern California, and visit and photograph the area all the time.

I can't, however, figure out why you made this image. Maybe it's just me, but I see no subject or interest in the image.

In the interview in Cottonwoods, which is reprinted in Along Some Rivers, Robert Adams says this of trees, "Trees feel good, smell good, sound good, and look good. And as if that weren't enough, they point beyond themselves."

Now that is not what I had in mind as I was making this picture, but is an influence on how I look at things.

So as an honest and direct answer to you comment: The subject is the trees. My interest (I assume you do mean my interest) is in what the tree is, and what it represents. To paraphrase Minor White (as I don't have the exact quote handy) "I want to photograph what the thing is, and what else it can be."

I can certainly see what you were interested in here though it's a daunting task to try and organize something like this in a meaningful way. In order to do so effectively you must consider every aspect of not only your composition but also your materials. This is after all a contact print and I can imagine that many of the sublties are lost on the web, especially the textures which I'm sure play no small part in the success of the image. Keep up the good work Rich, its an interesting direction and I look forward to seeing more. Best. Shawn