Artist's Statement
I have taken photography very seriously for forty years.
I have followed good and bad paths and have recognized my mistakes.
In this exhibition I hope to be on the right path.
“If thou wilt know the Invisible
Look closely at the visible!”
--Old Talmudic saying
On the Making of These Pictures
I have used the wet plate collodian process employed in the nineteenth century by all the great landscape photographers. A blackened aluminum or glass plate was covered with a sticky salted skin (collodian), dipped immediately in a bath of silver nitrate, inserted in a large view camera or in a small Brownie 3B box camera, exposed for 15 seconds to a minute, removed, taken into the dark where it was developed in ferrous sulphate, then dipped in a bath of potassium cyanide to clear the unnecessary chemicals, washed in water, dried, and finally coated with a varnish of sandarac resin and lavender oil. This is a rather tedious way to raise the familiar world to a level where it is not only uncommon but can be profoundly stirring. I have taken great joy in the presence of these trees.