PHOTO

G~A~L~L~E~R~Y OF V~A~L~E~R~I~E

PROMISE

In an earlier incarnation, my aspiration in life was to be a dazzling photographer. Most of the following are from my final years at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, when I hung several shows based on my travels in India.

Please go this way for commercial photography —that is, more like
what you might want to put on your Web site.

People on the Path

This was taken near Pandi Koyil in Madurai, South India. Pandi's temple is renowned for its "god-dancing women," female devotees who dance in a frenzy under the spell of the village god Pandi, especially on Friday mornings. The temple is set far back from the road, and visitors walk in on foot bearing offerings of fruit and flowers.

Woman Selling Banana Leaves

This woman at Pandi Koyil sells banana leaves to be used as disposable plates.

Buddhist Stupa in Ladakh

At the opposite end of the country from the southerly Pandi Koyil, these Buddhist stupas—reliquaries of saints—in Ladakh provide an always-available opportunity for devotion and mindfulness. Supplicants walk clockwise around the base of the stupa, sometimes chanting Om Mani Padme Hum, "All Hail, Jewel of the Lotus."

Mass. Ave. at Night

Back in the Boston area, things are a little frostier. This is a night view from a friend's apartment on Mass. Ave., Cambridge's main drag, representing one of my early encounters with a view camera.

Big Slide at Brockton Fair

I'm not much of a fair-goer unless I have a camera around my neck. The ambience is so surrealistic that it lends itself eagerly to artistic reinterpretations.

Self Portrait with Round Mirror

This is what I used to look like in 1982. Amazingly, I don't look very much different now, except for a bit more avoirdupois.

A Note about Techniques

How did I get it to look "like that," I was often asked. The glowing effect in the Indian and Brockton Fair photos comes from infrared film, which responds to light radiation with wavelengths longer than that of visible red light, in addition to the usual full spectrum. I've heard that the characteristic glow comes not from the infrared absorbency of the film, but from the absence of the halide backing ordinarily found on photographic film.

The dramatic cloud effects are produced by using a red filter over the camera lens, which prevents the transmission of blue light rays.

The sepia toning in the India photos comes from a standard sulphuric sepia bath. Nowadays you can do this with much less distress in Photoshop.

All photos were produced in the 1981-83 period.