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To those of you have followed my blog, offered comments, expressed appreciation and encouraged me, I thank you. It is time for me to take a break. I'm going on haitus to focus my energy on healing.
It's my hope to return with more photos, poems and reflections, perhaps in a few months. Until then, be well.
What is this gray cloud
laying waste my will to write?
From whence comes this murky, impenetrable malaise
blocking my photographer's vision?
I feel trapped,
alien to my own mind,
estranged from my heart,
a foreigner in my body.
This is not me.
So where have I gone?
More importantly,
how do I return?
Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Nashville, April, 2013.
Here we see old Nashville architecture reflected in the gold glass of the new. The reflected building stands out so well because it's fully lit by the newly risen sun. Additional drama is provided by the contrasting white blossoms of the tree. Carefully filtering the image gives everything a surreal quality.
I enjoy creating images that we recognize as "actual," yet they feel slightly "off," as if bordering on fantasy. This picture speaks to me of spring, yet of spring somewhere foreign...a nostalgia for somewhere I've never actually been.
Tip: Double-click the image to view it larger; you'll see much more detail.
Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Nashville, April, 2014.
This is Nashville's Union Station, originally a railroad station, now an upscale hotel. A wonderful place to eat (if you can afford it), or just to go in and look around. This is the view from my hotel (considerably cheaper) across the street, as the early morning sun washed the old building in gold-tinted light.
I warped the perspective to create the cartoonish exaggeration of the tower, as if it's looming at you. I also intensified the detail. Overall, you recognize it as both real and unreal, an actual place, but not, as in a fairy tale.
A suggestion: double-click on the image to enlarge it. You'll see greater detail and get a better feel for the picture.
Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Nashville, April, 2013.
I took this image--of two buildings, one old, one new--in downtown Nashville, soon after sunrise. Low clouds obscured the upper stories of the taller building in the background. I divided the image into two parts--the building to the left and in front...and every thing else. I then heightened the detail in the front building, which gives it more presence, an almost monumental feel. The background building and sky were given a painterly, mystical feel. Pulled back together, the final image reminds me of a painting of the dwelling of the gods on Mt. Olympus. Only the streetlight in the left bottom corner roots us in the present, a clue to the contemporary context.
Were the building in the background clearer, you'd see the AT&T logo facing us.
Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Nashville, April, 2013. If you've been to Nashville, you'll probably recognize this. I call it Ray Gun, because it reminds me of something from a 1950s sci-fi movie. In reality, it's a building (I believe it's the visitor bureau)--a round glass rotunda topped with a radio tower. I added the highlights to the glass, then gave it its ghostly look. The curve on the bottom left is the roof line of an adjacent building, but to me it looks like the edge of a planet, floating in space.
Remember Anne Francis in 1956's Forbidden Planet? Classic.
Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Nashville, April, 2013. This early morning shot is all about the "leading lines." Where does your eye land? The arch of the bridge links to the curve of the tracks, which in turn echo the curve of the river. The repeated short lines of the railroad ties establish a rhythm as they recede and disappear. Verticle and horinzontal lines in the bridge point up and down, left and right. Even the grooved lines at the platform's edge pull you along. Lines everywhere!
With all this movement, I simplified the image to remove additional clutter (note the lack of detail in the bushes).
As I took this photo, the engine of the train (a commuter) was rumbling about 20 feet behind me, about to leave the station. I have no idea where it was headed, but I wanted to be on it.
Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
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