The Ones I Like List of 2006 – A Countdown [#5]
© All rights reserved.
He Heard the Quiet There – When I decided to submit my photos to the Houston Center for Photography this past spring, this image was the cornerstone of my submission. I submitted five black and white fog photos and named the entire submission “He Heard the Quiet There”– the title of this photo.
With my submission package, I was required to write an artist’s statement in support of the work. The statement itself is no masterpiece, just a last minute, poorly-written write-up in an effort to make the deadline. The content, however, conveys fairly accurately what it is I was trying to do with this photo as well as what it is I like about it.
There is a stillness in the early morning hours that invites an element of loneliness not captured at any other time of day. When the sun begins to peek out from beyond the eastern horizon, one is able to see clearly enough to realize that there is a visual “quiet” present.
In winter of 2006, I set out to find and document this element of quiet at Hermann Park in Houston, Texas. I sought to create images that conveyed quiet loudly and clearly. The two major decisions I made in going about my work were 1) to shoot on foggy mornings and 2) to leave out the color that most associate with dawn.
My decision to shoot on foggy days stemmed from the notion (“stemmed from the notion”…Yeesh!) that fog allows the viewer to focus on the subject, be it a lone traveler, two trees, or a car in an otherwise empty lot. The absence of visual clutter gives one the sense that the subject really is all there is.
I decided to break away from the colors of morning, the reds and the oranges, because these colors, although beautiful, are energetic and promising. I wanted to strip the early morning of its usual palette and experiment with tones that were more stark and dispassionate.
Now those of you who are familiar with my work know that I am also a sucker for vibrant color, and that I have captured many an early morning in all its kaleidoscope-colored glory. In no way do I now claim to disavow the ultra-saturated greens and the sun-tinted reds that have oftentimes feuled my photography. It’s just that I feel a great kinship with “the quiet,” and tend to be partial to those of my photos (of your photos!) that convey that mood. Maybe it’s an “off-duty” golfcourse waiting to fulfill its utility. Quiet. Maybe its a soulful runner rising to greet the day on her terms. Quiet. And then maybe…its a broken man making his way through another foggy night at the park, a park that is only hours away from the social set’s cacophony.
This photo is probably one of only two photos that has never fallen out of my top five.
