a.d. steward

Someone rated this 3/3? Are you stoned or just a moron?

Natalya, this is beautiful, my favorite, please do more along these lines.

Beautiful!

The logo competes with her face for my attention and I would like to see the logo moved straight down to the bottom.

Needs mystery, tension, LIGHTING.

This a great piece, which I belive to be underrated.

dq.

I really dig this shot. I would very much like to see it with the grass shoot in the front right cloned out, i think it would be even better. dq.

Maybe not, either way i really like this, ALOT.

Where do you get off?

Where Art is concerned there are only two ways about it: My way or the Highway. I once worked for a nominally successful commercial photographer who repeatedly told me there was only one way to do it, it being the methodology of photographing whatever the subject matter was. This made no sense to me at the time, and in fact I was quite frustrated by the exclusivity of the concept. I was frustrated artistically and was consequently frustrated emotionally as well. I did not understand the nature of the concept only one way to do it as I do now. Many people sheltered in such inflexibility never elucidate their notions of correct and incorrect method and I believe this is due to a basic ignorance of their own thought processes. Clearly there is a distinction between doing something well and doing it poorly, however, the well-done result is a destination while the method of attaining the result is the artistic journey itself.

Imagine a pathway through time. Thousands of years ago this trail may have been no more than some trodden grass guiding us to a cave filled with images of Bison, Antelope and Wooly Mammoth illuminated by the greatest advancement of the age: a warm and inviting fire. Naturally the name of the Artist has been forgotten, however the perception of a communicable idea persists. As our species grew in number the artistic pathway became a road, then a highway and all the while a functioning artery of ideas. Whether new and bold, sublime, innocent, depraved or vulgar we think thoughts and communicate them. For the aware traveler this hard and unforgiving road is marked with signposts written in blood and exits forged through resolute determination. Our sapient artistic thoroughfare is built on the success and failure of names known, forgotten and never known. Names like Bell, Edison, Pasteur, DaVinci, Matisse, OKeefe, Graham, Abdellah, Ansel, Helmet, Tolkin, Jefferson, Churchill, Gutenberg, Coltrane, Armstrong, Carver, Douglas, Scorsese, DeMille, Lucas and so many more. As our impassioned species develops awareness of the temporal expanse through which we journey the perception of history and ascendant cognitive progeny develops into the reality of personal responsibility. Whether we tell it like it is or tell it as we imagine it to be, we cannot escape the responsibility to tell it Well.

Unfortunately, many if not most stop at exits named after those that came before, never willing to really explore the possibility of their own success, rather yielding to fear of their own failure. Afraid to bleed or be laughed at they follow the safe, well-trodden path to acceptance. Fortunately for the rest of us there are those who pave the way to the possible and beyond, to the future. As we pass this way we breathe in deeply the sweet scent of sweat drenched success, grateful for the efforts of true individuals like Jesse Owens, Madame Curie and Steven Spielberg. As for me, Im not much of an athlete, brainiac or imitator of other photographers and so my task is clear, I must as I do, to the very best of my ability. Ive tried the exits of others and after a time needed to get back on the road again. Ive enjoyed and profited from the view offered by those traveling concomitantly: Goossens, McNitt, Lancar-Agoli, Miller, Kowalik, Kazakova, Ezra, Cohen, Smolinsky, Ettan, Vanoucek, and Zha, to name so very few. Be that as it may, I must find my way, the Only one way I can truly go. I must seek out my own exit on this miraculous highway of being. I must ask myself one question, Where do I get off?.