well hello, california.
it is so good to see you again.
thank you for having me.
it has been quite a long day. so long of a day that it feels like it has been two days.
(it probably doesn't help that i can't stop listening to M83)
i woke up this morning at 5:45am to catch an 8:15am flight out of atlanta
and five hours later, it was 10:15am again
today was my day to get acclimated to rental cars and california road signs and to try my hand at solo map reading and navigating and to eat delicious food and to probably find the only bar in the mission district of san francisco that was playing bluegrass music on a monday night..
it has been a good day
a very good day
take a look for yourself
you can't tell, but i am hanging off a cable car on the other side of this photo.
shameless self portrait and the golden gate. happy 75th birthday golden gate bridge.
mission chinese food. so good. get the sizzling lamb and the salt cod fried rice. and the tiger rolls.
its worth the wait. and the communal tables.
on the plane today, somewhere in between 20,000 feet over birmingham and death valley, i spent most of my time reading a book my mom gave me from her time in yosemite.. and i must confess, that while i've had this book since the first mention/conception of a pilgrimage yosemite photography trip out west, today was the first day i really really read anything other than the pictures.. and it struck a cord.
and i wanted to share it with you..
carl watkins.
i like carl e watkins. for lots of reasons. on a surface level, i respect him. between 1858 and 1891, the work of watkins' constitutes one of the longest and most productive careers in nineteenth-century american photography. he was a pioneer. in the tradional sense of living out west in new cities and settlements but then also of both the medium of collodion tin type photography and then within the realm of artist/environmental activism. we have watkins to thank for protecting/creating yosemite. his early landscapes of mariposa grove and what was then a very large territory of virgin, unfelled forest of sequoias and redwoods, that we now know as yosemite national park, gave cause and desire to preserve and protect. his images of big trees and waterfalls rallied if not a nation, perhaps a large sector within it. if president lincoln had had a phone in 1861, watkins would have been on his EPA speedial. if it wasn't for watkins.. who knows what could have happend.
and then i also love his images.
and on a deeper level, i feel like i can relate.
carl emmons watkins came to california from oneona, new york in 1849 to work as a clerk in a buddy's hardware store in sacramento. after a series of floods and fires in the hardware store ended his career in the hammer and nails business, watkins found himself working in a daguerreotype photographic studio in san francisco, as an assistance to robert vance. with no prior training or inclination, watkins found himself a purpose and a passion. he cut his teeth on architectuals and city landscapes. and on a chance visit to mariposa grove, just outside of yosemite valley, he found his niche. true environmental portraits. landscapes. very big landscapes.
watkins spent thirty years capturing this magical place and working towards something that was bigger than himself.
he, like me, started out in a career doing something else other than photography. and when that something else didn't pan out he turned to or found purpose with a camera. (like myself). i left my day job to pursue this.. i have spent the last four years of my life chasing the images that live in my mind and trying to figure out how to manipulate a camera to properly capture them.
i, like watkins, am a self taught man (well, woman really). i am not a traditional student.. i went to school, but not for this. some classes and a handful of mentors.. i took my own long way around.
i'll skip over the part about watkins going blind and crazy and dying in a mental instuition, oh man.. i hope that's one thing we won't share..
i'll just leave you with the part of carl watkins that leaves me encouraged and inspired and hopeful that this visual passion that is photography can be rooted in something that is more purposeful than just aesthetics or storytelling.. i hope that there is something to be found in my work that is preservation or perserving a moment or idea or an attempt of capturing something that is bigger than myself.
the goal should always be bigger than ourselves.
i am still figuring all of that part out, but it seems like a worthy goal..
i like you carl e watkins.
and i hope you do too.
good night california.
see you tomorrow
xoxoxo
(m83, bulit to spill, sly and family stone, fleet foxes, and a fleetwood mac kinda day)
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