Personal Algorithm

I’ve been making photographs since the 1980s.

Somewhere along the way, I noticed my pictures share the same bones. The same diagonal lines. Texture in the same places. Visual weight in the same quadrants.

In 1996, an instructor at Brooks Institute of Photography told me, “There are no accidents in photography. When you put the camera to your eye, your subconscious knows exactly what it’s doing.”

It took me a few decades to recognize what she meant in my own work.

I don’t stress anymore about when to take a photograph. I put myself in a place, look around, and wait for the call.

On the Dry Creek Trail in mid-June 2016, it came. I set my tripod in the dirt and took the picture.

I don’t think. I get out of the way and obey the call.

Like I would a higher power.