Photo Essay - PhotoTrice

Fresh Frozen Reality

Lately photo web sites are abuzz with indignation over dastardly manipulation of images. Indeed, how could anyone do such a thing as corrupt the truth in a photograph? A better question is how can a photo represent reliable truth? The general notion persists that photographs represent reality. We are so easily deceived into thinking they are true depictions of something. Even if you discount all the decisions and or biases of the photographer you are only left with a fraction of a second of frozen ‘reality’. Anything we know from a photographic image has been interpreted, composed and extracted by the photographer then reinterpreted, recomposed and committed to memory.

I wonder what truth was being represented hundreds of years ago by the maker of the rock shelter petroglyph? That person didn’t have a camera but he did have a world view which framed his interpretation of reality as surely as we frame our own. Native peoples were as intelligent as us and just as capable of depicting the world using the technology available to them. You can easily see that they had cultural bias. Should we think that we are less biased because we have a better way to portray detail in our images?

It is good to remember that 99.99% of all photographs are not made for evidentiary documentary purposes. We are free to select what we see in front of our camera lenses and to interpret the images we capture. The fraction of a percent of images that we deem to be inviolable as historical documents are an edge case when compared to the mountain of images made for other purposes.

The camera is an instrument for capturing light not truth. The finished photo is something interpreted before and after capture. It is important that we set our own limits for what is appropriate when creating finished images. Others should be free to do the same thing.

To Feel Free

It is spring in Texas which is usually more like summer in most places. Normally about this time of year high pressure settles into the atmosphere keeping the weather predictably hot and dry. This year something is different. We have endured a severe multi-year drought that has now been broken by intense El Niño conditions. We are rich with rain which is good but we do love our sunshine. Maybe a more even climate cycle would make things easier to manage. Then again, be careful what you ask for.

This time of year my thoughts turn to traveling on two wheels. I can’t ride any longer which is my loss. Even so, it is hard to shake a thirty year long obsession with the road. Now I make pictures of motorcycles and enjoy the sights and sounds as they ride along. It is a distant second in terms of experience.

V-Twins of various brands all competing to be loud and obnoxious are most common on the roads in the Texas Hill Country. Never rode those kinds of bikes myself. I was strictly a long distance rider. If you take touring seriously you want a quite smooth machine that handles well without fuss. In my case something that could handle both challenging high country back roads and the interstate when necessary. Back to back five hundred mile days that you can enjoy take a special machine and excellent gear. Those who do that sort of riding will know what I’m talking about.

It’s not all bad these days just different. Few people get to experience more than a hundred thousand miles on two wheels. Free of major accidents I will add. I’d guess most bikers log at most a few thousand miles between watering holes. Either way riding a motorcycle that moves by diving and leaning in space is more than most people manage. In the end I suspect we all ride because it is such a thrill to feel free.

Texas Drought

Texas weather is notorious for being changeable. Like other places in the middle of North America, Texas comes under the influence of warm Gulf moisture and frigid air from far north. The clash between the two makes for violent conditions especially in spring and fall.

Climate wise most of Texas is semiarid. Tending to be hot and dry most years. It seems Texas is in a zone of latitude which frequently changes from drought to adequate rainfall depending in large part on Pacific Ocean temperatures. The last decade has been primarily drought. Year after year the rains failed to materialize and reservoirs emptied in a predictable fashion until much of the state was subject to water rationing. In the last couple of years some communities have been importing water in trucks for drinking purposes. Even century old trees started dying from lack of water.

The drought caused major disruption for farmers and ranchers across the state. They found themselves without water or competing with cities for the remaining supplies. The result was failure of many agricultural operations, wholesale liquidation of livestock and farm equipment.

I began documenting communities In the Texas Hill Country around the turn of the millennium. Among my regular stops are popular places on the Guadalupe and Medina rivers. Over the years I have photographed both rivers dozens of times. Even in the worst of the drought some water was flowing. Then one day I drove out to a crossing on the Medina River and it was dry. It was shocking to stand in the riverbed with my tripod and camera.

For now rains have returned to recharge the aquifers. The state is no longer parched. It will be a long time before the first drought of the new century is forgotten. Water is now managed more carefully. Regardless of how well we manage resources we are at the mercy of the climate.