Notes On Recent Work: 2021-2025

I discovered photography in 1969 and it remains my favorite medium for expression. I love the way cameras represent and transform the look of the world in a unique way. Alongside my interest in how photography leads to the exploration of new visual ideas and self-discoveries, my attraction to other art forms has grown. In the past decade, my appetite for looking at and studying non-photographic art has shaped my picture-making. To me, one of the most interesting aspects of modern and contemporary painting is the engagement with abstraction. With this in mind, much of my recent photography reflects my deepening love for other artistic practices.

Paint:  I have been a photographer all my life and I predict that I will be one until the end. I like the way the world looks photographed! I confess, however, that I have always been more than a little jealous of painters. When I visit museums, my eyes often take me first to the painting galleries. I marvel at the surfaces of paintings, which contain their own visual dramas, often independent of any narrative or formal aspect of the work. A difference between us photographers and painters are that photographers normally start with the world, while painters begin with a blank canvas and end up with astonishing creations. I still don’t understand how that happens!  I often have dreams where I am a painter, creating gorgeous abstract works rivaling De Kooning, O’Keeffe, Pollock, Mitchell and Richter.

My “Paint Pictures” are my attempt to fill the gap between what I know (and adore) about photography, and what I long for in my other artistic fantasies and ambitions. I paint all my pictures using brushes, sticks and sponges. I feel insecure about calling myself a painter or even a Sunday painter but I do know enough about moving paint around to arrive at something interesting, maybe even beautiful!  

Interiors:  In these pictures of interior spaces that I build combining architecture, paint and design, I want to come up with psychological settings where, perhaps, some interesting or weird things can be evoked. I know that some of these interior pictures  have roots in my hazy memories from the early 1960s in New York when my father was a super of five buildings on West 69th street. As recent refugees from Cuba, my family and I lived in dark basement rooms with tunnels to other buildings. When I was thirteen and helping my father, I wandered a lot in those shadowy passages. 

Painted Wood Composites:  Several of these multiple exposure pictures of criss-crossing pieces of wood are inspired by the work of a number of artists from early 20th century schools of art who experimented with new ways of incorporating geometry in their efforts to break things down and arrive at a fresh look in art.

Colored Tape and Paint Constructions:

These striped images of basic geometric shapes began with my interest in melding painting and sculptural ideas with photography. I especially like the way the colored masking tape is rendered photographically; at times as if it is floating off the surface.

Colored Paper Constructions:

For my new “Abstraction” series I chose colored construction paper as material to build with in part because of how the paper retains its substantial “feel” and also because of its reference to youthful play. The pictures consciously quote from the world of Color Field painting, which I love.