HAPHAZART! CONTEMPORARY ABSTRACTS | NOVEMBER 2009
J
une 1997 - First Foray into Photography
I am new to San Francisco, freshly graduated from the University of Utah with a highly impractical degree in creative writing (emphasis: poetry). I become a clerk in a record store. I fall for a man who shows me a book by local photographer Imogene Cunningham – portraits of the elderly taken when she herself was an elderly gnome. I know nothing about photography, but I save up to buy a “fancy” camera anyway, one step above a brownie. While living in a seedy boarding house, I play around with shutter speeds and lamp light, snapping arty pictures of record album covers. One day I take to the streets and capture a picture of a distinguished gentleman in a fedora, sitting on a bench. His resolute, chiseled face matches the strength of the brick wall and the lines of the bench. The next few years – my tempestuous twenties – rip by in a blur. They include unexpected single motherhood, welfare, and my camera being stolen. Having no money to buy a new camera, I go back to a focus on writing. But sometimes I flip through “art” books in bookstores. One day I buy one of “freak” shots by Diane Arbus. Another time, I splurge on the works of Georgia O’Keefe. I like the colours of Matisse, the whimsy of Chagall. I have no interest in abstract art.
J
une 2007 - Eureka! I Discover Flickr
My grown son now travels the world as a circus performer. Impossible but true! Life’s surprises – little and big – never cease to amaze me. I run a school of creative writing. One day a friend says, “That was a nice photo you posted on your blog. You should check out Flickr.” I have a few minutes to kill, so
Untitled | Jane Underwood
I google it, poke around, and something in me gets sparked. I open an account, pull my funky old point-and-shoot Olympus out of the closet and dust if off. Before I know it, I’ve become a photo-snapping maniac, taking my camera with me whenever I walk the dog; soon it is always either in my pocket or perched within arm’s length. I have no idea what I’m doing other than following an unexpected urge to take as many photos as I can. I have entered into a whole new world. I use the verbal part of my brain for writing, and the non-verbal part for photography. After a day spent hacking away at black and white words on a gray computer, it’s a relief to revert to the wordless realm of photography. I join not just one but dozens of Flickr groups with names like The Magic of Colour, Abstract Reality, Elegantly Minimal, Walls only Walls, Vacated Meaning, haphazart! I pore over thousands of photos – rapt, swept up, obsessed. I use every spare moment to take photos. What is happening to me? I have no idea. I don’t think of myself as “a photographer.” I’m just a person who takes a whole lot of photos, immersed in the joy of creative play and the pleasure of getting away from my computer. I take most of my photos while out walking the dog, Olivia (also new to my life). As a former “indoor-only” person who never really understood what all the fuss was about when it came to sunlight, I’m finding that I love feeling the weather on my face, and watching the motion of trees, and smelling the scents of eucalyptus and jasmine. Olivia whines or pulls on the leash whenever I stop to attempt a shot, but that’s okay because I like the challenge of a time limit. Best of all, though, is the fun of discovering what I want to see while in the act of seeing it. [>> p 44]
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