I was in Chicago for the day and found myself in Downer’s Grove, one of the city’s prosperous Western suburbs, studying an enlargement of a photograph of the Downer’s Grove boy’s high school basketball team, circa 1916. I was captivated. The photo was so good I found myself wondering what happened to this motley group of young men, with their wrinkled white shorts and haircuts that looked like something out of a black-and-white gangster movie.
In some cultures, people believe photographs steal the human soul. I believe just the opposite. This photograph preserved some of the spirit of these young men – so much that I was able to experience it today – 93 years later. There they were standing on the steps of the school building, wearing tall knee-socks with two wide stripes; sleeveless jerseys – again with two, wide horizontal stripes; and tattered, two-tone high-top shoes. The tallest boy in the front and center held the ball, on which someone had clumsily painted the date in white numbers. There was a serious boy, one who looked to be a smart-ass, and of course a variety of smiles and half-smiles. I wondered to myself, how many of these guys still have lineage in the area? Did any of them fight in World War I? Did any become successful? Are any still alive today? I would love to know more of the stories of these young men.
Of course this is the reason we love photography, because it preserves for us a shadow memory of brief moments, the likenesses of long-passed relatives, events and people who might otherwise be forgotten. That’s the power of photography. But the power of a great photograph is that it preserves more than a likeness. A great photograph delivers the spirit and personality of the subject to us across the years. From 1916 to today, across all the wars and natural disasters and moon landings and social upheavals and countless events, I was able to connect with just a little of the youthful spirit and energy of these young guys… thanks to power of a great photograph.
Unfortunately, an Internet search for the photo turned up nothing. If I find the photograph, I will repost it here. Thanks for reading.
Rain rops / Early Morning -- Baraboo, WI 2009
One thing I have learned in my twenty-plus years as a graphic designer and ad agency creative director is that people respond to color. Color stimulates the senses and has been shown in studies to cause a physical reaction in our bodies.
So, I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I have had two separate exhibition sites in the past year tell me they’d love to display my photographs, as long as the prints are in color rather than black-and-white. The proprietors seemed to feel B&W images were too dismal for the winter months. They wanted color to enliven their customers, rather than B&W, which would have presumably added to the dark and depression of the long winter months.
Robert Frank has been quoted as saying, “Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of despair and hope to which man kind is forever subjected.” Despair and hope. I’m trying to understand this, because I have made the choice as an artist / photographer to pursue my medium in B&W.
The Fading Light -- San Antonio, TX 2005
I have been “artistic” since early childhood, and before photography became my voice of self-expression, I pursued many forms of drawing and painting, but always circled back to the dramatic, simple beauty of black and white. The jet-black Ebony pencil was my favorite tool for drawing.
In the digital age, the choice of color or B&W is an artistic one more than a technical one. Color and B&W photography each present the artist with unique challenges and opportunities. In my opinion, color photos are typically pedestrian – often vivid and lively yes — but still ordinary. More color in a color-saturated world. Whereas B&W photography (when done effectively) can be as dramatic, as powerful, as expressive, and as fully rich and vivid as any color photograph. My argument is not helped by the fact that a poorly created B&W print can appear flat and lifeless, and quality reproduction of B&W photographs in printed publications is difficult because of the limited capabilities of the commercial printing press.
This is the point that I wish those misguided people who see B&W photos as dismal would recognize: B&W photography contains as much “color” as color photography — in the form of tones, details, and textures. If a B&W photograph is captured, processed, and printed superbly, no one will notice the absence of color. In fact, they will realize the addition of color would probably destroy the image – making it less, rather than more. As for me, I will continue to pursue B&W photography, and hopefully achieve excellence some day. With apologies to Mr. Frank, along the way, I plan to tip the scales on the side of hope, rather than despair.
See more of my work at www.keithdotson.com.
Even though I’m no youngster, I am pretty new to the whole idea of seriously pursuing photography as an artistic medium. I’ve really only been at it a few years and, in fact, just completed my first solo gallery exhibition in Minneapolis. Being new means I’m hungry to grow, and I learn something new every day—about myself, about the medium, about the business of art, about other artists who define the field and how they pursue their singular visions.
I recently discovered the unassuming Website of North Dakota landscape photographer Chuck Kimmerle. Mr. Kimmerle is quietly creating beautiful landscapes far from the trendiness of the art photography hotspots. While his brand of landscape work may not be trendy or sexy, I felt the revelation of true joy one feels when being exposed to the work of a skilled master. I’ve often believed anyone can take a beautiful photograph of a stunning landscape (or of a gorgeous woman for that matter), but it takes a really superior vision to extract beauty from the mundane. Mr. Kimmerle has patiently uncovered remarkable beauty from what he calls the “reticent landscape, devoid of the natural grandiosity preferred by the majority of destination seekers.”
Every image is perfectly crafted, full of detail and tonality–keenly observed and well-captured. This is the kind of work I strive to create.
Oh, and his prints are remarkably affordable and can be purchased directly from the artist himself!
Because of the holidays, and a few other personal reasons, I have done a lot of driving lately. I drove from Madison to Texas and back (916.90 miles), and then I drove from Madison to eastern Tennessee and back (732.17) — two times.
Above: Illinois fields in winter
All that time driving through the cold and flat midwest caused me to notice three things:
1) Jesus has one heckuva licensing deal. All those bumper stickers, license plate frames, pisces decals, road signs, t-shirts, and other promotional schwag must bring in tons of money.
2) The rock band Journey still has a surprisingly strong following among radio programmers.
3) The number and frequency of Wal-Mart bags littering the highways and byways of America seems to be going down. To explain: About two years ago I took a long road trip through the southern United States. I witnessed so many of those blue, plastic Wal-Mart shopping bags along the highway that I decided to pass time by counting them. I lost count in the mid-60s. Yes, over the course of a few states, I saw over 60 blue bags along the road, snagged in trees, or lying on the median full of other trash. The number was so large that I wrote Wal-Mart to ask if they percieved this as a problem. I received no reply. I’m happy to report on this trip, I saw no blue bags.
My name is Keith Dotson, and I’m artist and photographer. That’s how I make my living, and it’s also how I make my life. This is my first attempt at blogging. It can be tough for visual people to think in terms of words, but I have always loved language. I named my son Dylan after the great poet Dylan Thomas, because I love his beautiful use of language. Only later did I learn that the well-known singer Robert Zimmerman took his more famous pseudonym from the poet as well.
This blog will be primarily about photography. I love photography and photographs, and I hope to create a conversation with others who love art or photography. This will not be a blog about gear. There are plenty of very good places to find that kind of information already, by people who know a lot more about it than I do. But for the record, I shoot with Olympus equipment. It was an almost accidental choice, but I have come to love the cameras and especially the lenses. They are a pleasure to use. They don’t pay me to endorse their products, so I’ll leave it at that.
My purpose for writing this blog is the same as my purpose for creating photographs — to create something meaningful for myself, and hope that it may be meaningful for someone else as well. But like most artists, I believe life and art are inseparable, so this effort may branch off into all kinds of other topics, from painting to politics, from composition to light and shadows, from food to music — who knows!?
First and foremost, I have to wonder whether this blog will even find any readership. If you read, please comment. If I make a mistake, please correct me. Most of all, thank you for reading!
– Keith
