TOUCHSTONES

May, 2006

TOUCHSTONES

I love to travel. I have come to understand that the desire to travel is simply part of whom I am. While working on TOUCHSTONES I traveled to Scotland two or three times a year.

Where I am going, how I will get there, what new places I will visit and what familiar haunts I will return to, all these questions add to the stress of getting ready to go on the road. Then there is the family side and the business side that has to be taken care of before I and after I leave. And herein lie the hard part of traveling for me.

However, once I am out the door, and on the bus headed to the airport, I relax and begin to look forward to the adventure. I believe that the subconscious is far ahead of the conscious thought process. My conscious mind plans out my trip. My subconscious stays open to new ideas and visions. I trust serendipity. I have my ideas and expectations but am always looking for the unexpected.

Plates 2 and Plate 3 were serendipitous images. Gatehouse of Fleet is an area in southwest Scotland, on the way to the John Paul Jones' birthplace museum. After winding down a few miles of country roads we entered a forest of mixed growth trees. The road diverged at the gates of what I assume is Arbigland Estate. A right turn and a few miles later we arrived at the 17th century cottage reported to be the Jones' birthplace. It was a nice little cottage/museum but not what I was hoping to find. It was too sterile, too boring and I didn't make a photograph there.

Backtracking to the main road we passed the gate again. Frustrated that I hadn't made a picture at the museum I was bound and determined to expose some film on the gates. But even at the gates I couldn't find the right spot. The image just wasn't working. Then I turned around.

Standing in the middle of this country lane I saw this ribbon of road leading into the distance. I made an image and began to work the situation. I worked with both a long and short lens, moving to the left, to the right of the road and down the center of the road. After shooting all of the 5x12 film I had loaded and most of the 5x7 film I felt that I had an image. I wasn't sure if the image would be inviting or intimidating. I made exposures trying to create both impressions.

During the processing and editing of the negatives for this location, the image I kept returning to was the one that became Plate 2 in TOUCHSTONES. There was something familiar about it. At first I thought it reminded me of Eugene Smith's "Walk to Paradise garden" but it isn't an image about the moment of going from darkness into light. It's more about the approach itself.

Plate 3, Iona Abbey Church, is an expected and predictable image from inside a beautiful cathedral structure. It gives a sense of scale and size, displays the beauty of the stonework, and leads the viewer down the center of the image to the altar at the front of the church. It is a beautiful place and, I think, a beautiful photograph of that place. But it had to be more than that to make it in to the book.

These two images were essential in the sequencing of TOUCHSTONES. Plate 1, the two standing stones and one fallen stone open the narrative of the book. It is misty, perhaps mystical and about the uncertainty of beginning a journey. There is a path, a trail, but where does it lead? These next two images inform the viewer that the path will lead to light. It will be a safe journey, a journey about beauty, about observing and witnessing the quiet corners of life.

TOUCHSTONES is a book about that journey. It is meant to reflect my love of travel but reminds me to return safely to my wellspring of life, home. Home gives me the courage to leave, and the desire to return. Home is that place of light and beauty and courage. Perhaps your subconscious will lead you on a journey through this book and inspire you to new journeys of your own.