10 past midnight » Ireland

Ruins Revisited

wooddickinson — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:58:19 +0000

I keep playing with this image. It’s like poetry. I’ve written and published bit of poetry and was asked once how you know when a poem is finished. I said a poem is finished when its beat you to death and there’s no more left for you to put into it.

Some photographs are the same. There are those that I know exactly what I want to see when it’s done then there are those that just keep praying on your mind so you go back to it over and over trying different things until the picture revels itself. I find that this happens most on photographs that I passed over the first time I sorted shots. I’m just not in tune with it at the sorting time but later I see it and all of a sudden something popes out. The mystery of art or maybe better, the mystery of the mind.

Here is a sample of a poem that isn’t cooked yet. I keep them in the “not finished” folder on my computer.

I see blue sky

Finally;

The cold sets in.

But today the sky is blue.

I live for blue.

My chest. A thousand pounds

Pressing down.

What useless emotions.

Wasted and wasting me.

Where is peace?

Under the rubble of broken buildings in Haiti,

Shaken by God’s hand? Maybe.

The year ends. I look for that strand to pull myself into the next.

Ruins

wooddickinson — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:16 +0000

Here is the latest on 100 in 365.2.

Visit the site: http://www.100in365.com/

October

wooddickinson — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 18:36:03 +0000

Now it is October. It always seems that September just melts away with changes from the heat of August nights to the cool of October days. This is the best month of the year. Erratic change takes place from green summer colors toward the colors of fall with bright oranges and then death. Death can be felt in the cold winds that blow carrying with it dried brown leaves and trees devoid of all color. Our minds try to soften the fear by celebrating Halloween. In fact Halloween comes from the old Irish word, Samuin meaning summers end. It was an old Irish tradition to build large bonfires and feed them with the bones of dead cattle then go home and light the fire in your hearth from flames taken from the bonfire.

It was all about purging and sometimes two bonfires would be lit and people and cattle would walk between them to cleans themselves. It was also believed the space between our world and “the other side” would become very thin. That evil would come through along with some of loved ones. Masks and the like would be worn to fool the evil spirits. Symbols like carved pumpkins lit with candles were set in windows to keep the dead away. It wasn’t until the 16th century the name All Hollows Even was used.

Irish Jack-O-Lantern

The Jack O lantern is also from old Ireland. It was felt they could keep the spirits at bay on this frightening night. Today we carve them for fun and place them on our door step to welcome trick or treaters. It is all a game with the fear of things from the other side relegated to bad horror movies and sometime excellent horror fiction. One of the best writers of our time Ray Bradbury wrote an excellent novel that was released in 1962 called Something Wicked This Way Comes. The title of this work was taken from William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth: by the picking of my thumbs/something wicked this way comes.

It is an October story and if you’ve never read it now’s the time. Don’t watch the movie!

Here we are. Moving deep into October Country. With all its games and fun shot through with fear and change. A time of endings and looking toward the new beginnings of spring wondering what the wasteland of winter will take from us this year.

Sales

wooddickinson — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:53:29 +0000

Books are selling out. Like I said only 10 were made. Four are left for sale. Prints from the Wood Dickinson Photography website are also selling out. If you want one don’t wait. I will not do another run. Only posters or postcards.

Contact me directly for sales.

New Book

wooddickinson — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:43:15 +0000

If you go to my website you will find information on a private published book of me B&W photos of Ireland. There will only be 10 produced and they cost $100 each. Take a look. Click HERE.

Tower

wooddickinson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:18:00 +0000

As I have been working on the reimagination of my Ireland photos I find that the B&W with texture and mood added through editing creates a very different feel. This is one of the mystic round towers of Ireland. This one is at Glendalough.

Street

wooddickinson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:03:00 +0000

Church 2

wooddickinson — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:58:00 +0000

Church 1

wooddickinson — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:58:00 +0000

In the effort of getting a folio ready for submission here is another Ireland photo. I will add these photos to my online portfolio. If you click on this image you will see a large version.

Hills

wooddickinson — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:40:00 +0000

It’s been awhile since I’ve been here. My real work has gotten in the way of my passion. But, I have been spurred on. I received my latest copy of Lenswork magazine and the editorial was about procrastination. It is true that I get bogged down trying to get things done from a photographic perspective but it does suffer due to my work in the film business. One’s need to make money I guess.

For those of you not familiar with that magazine I strongly recommend you get a copy and read it. Several of the portfolios in the latest issue left me wanting so that coupled with the editorial has put things in motion. I’m working on a set of photographs related around my trip to Ireland. As I keep looking at the images and connecting to the place again I see more and more. That seems to have me on a mission to reinvent these photographs from many different perspectives. I will share them with you as I’m imagining them today. This first one was taken from a moving car using a Nikon D2Xs.