Why another blog?

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