As I started to use the camera, my relationship with my Paterson Society friends began to get its old energy again. My idea of what these people thought I could do and should do was crucial to me. I had the notion that they expected something from me -- or at least they wouldn't be surprised. My fantasy about them helped me approach the camera with a sense of purpose, seize it and make it an experiment that worked. Without articulating anything and/or being heavy-handed, making myself or themselves self-conscious, they took me as I was presenting myself (though I wasn't necessarily convinced myself], seriously, and they expected me to get better at what I was trying to do. I want to be as scholarly about my camera and photography as they are about their work. It isn't an accident, I think, that the body of my work stems from my relationship with these people -- at least for this time.
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