A Breakthrough?

Progress in any art, craft, or skill is not linear. There are growth spurts, plateaus, minor ups and downs, even detours that lead away from the growth chart to wander the wilderness, then wiggle back again.

I feel like I have been on a giant Colorado Plateau for some time now, as well as taking a few side canyon and slick rock detours. But I may very well have hit a steep growth incline this past week. Is this just a period of experimentation, or will this pan out into a significant portfolio? I feel like it is something significant.

The source?

I, like many others, have always been worried about the condition of the Earth and what may happen over the next hundred or so years as the Western Civilization lifestyle (capitalism-consumerism) takes its toll–global warming, a sixth great extinction, extreme population growth, etc. Sure, Gaia will survive–she always will…she will simply shrug her shoulders and adjust, no matter what toxins are thrown at her or what size meteorite slams into her (well, maybe this latter event could conceivably turn her into a new asteroid belt if the collision is massive enough).

But will we survive? Some of us, probably? Most of us? Who knows…

So, how to express these concerns in my photography?  (Naturally, using a wonderful camera created by the very system that may be our eventual downfall!)

With the following two images, I’ll start work on something I’ll call–for now, anyway–“Western Civ 102“. I’ll grope around for a better label as time goes on. Eventually, with time, I’ll get the series uploaded to my Galleries–which are in dire need of updating, anyway.

These layered images were all created with the iPhone 6, with some help from a Topaz plug-in.

Altar to the Industrial Gods. March,2015.

A Slave to Time. March, 2015