Infrared Imagery

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Impressions in Wax: The Creative Process

The photograph is the beginning of the process. My technique involves creating imagery using the invisible infrared light spectrum. I shot infrared film for many years. Now, I use a digital camera converted to infrared and the digital darkroom to create the split-toned imagery. Working with infrared light adds an element of mystery when creating the work, which, I feel, suits the subject matter and the timeless quality of the images. The post processing is part of my medium-I work with Photoshop and now I am pouring encaustic wax on the surface of the prints. This creates work that looks similar to a photograph, but at the same time depends heavily upon the intervention of my hand. I was just in a studio in Philadelphia working with the wax and painting the images with oil sticks. The digital images have always seemed a bit too clean for me and I have been looking for a way to put back in elements that may surprise me.


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aCurator- Featured Photographer

View the magazine photo feature

aCurator is a full screen magazine featuring photography and art, edited and published by Julie Grahame in New York…

I am happy to be the current featured artist.

“My ongoing body of work, ‘Still Points in a Turning World’, explores our universal cross-cultural truths: the importance of family, community, ritual and the amazing diversity of its expression.

“The differences between our many world cultures are fading away. We all lose when ancient skills and visionary wisdom are forgotten. As a ‘visual archeologist’, photography has become my way to honor and celebrate an existence that may soon vanish and what it is that makes a people unique. I believe that sharing these stories and rituals can have a positive impact by providing a window on our common humanity.” – Terri Gold, July 2010

Click here to View the Blog Site feature

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The North Fork

Spent the  day in Cutchogue on Sunday at my good friends home, which is a feast for the eyes and spirit on the North Fork. The skies were filled with ever-increasing dramatic  light and clouds moving quickly as a summer storm blew in. A delicious  luncheon with friends finished just in time for a wonderful  rainstorm on the way home . The vineyards  and farms are in all their summer glory.

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The Coney Island Mermaid Parade

Saturday was the fabulous Coney Island Mermaid Parade. This year the parade also had a message.  As one sign put it: “Fuck You BP, Save the Mermaids.”  “Performance artist  (Tigger) Ferguson told the Daily News, “Today is a celebration of sea life trying to survive in the gulf. The Mermaid Parade is a celebration of marine life, mythical and real.”

Still, the parade was as colorful and festive as ever. Lou Reed and wife Laurie Anderson served as the parade’s King and Queen, and everyone including the large group of  inventive photographers had a great time. Along with the amazing mermaids and mermen and their creative costumes , the array of photographic gear is always inspirational. Every unique flash contraption, medium and large format film cameras and  polaroid cameras and more are  on display.

Coney Island is filled with new rides and the Circus and music on the boardwalk every night. I am definitely going back for a sunset visit to photograph more of the scene.



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Buglisi Dance Theatre: Letters of Love on Ripped Paper

On Wednesday, June 16th, I photographed a wonderful preview performance by the Buglisi Dance Theatre, “Letters of Love on Ripped Paper”. It is a work in progress that will premiere in 2011 and was hosted by Ralph Pucci at his beautiful penthouse. The work is based on love letters through the ages; one is from Napoleon to Josephine:

Josephine

Your image…the intoxicating pleasure…allow my senses no rest

My soul is broken with grief when I drink from your lips…your heart a scorching flame.

Till then, a thousand kisses, mio dolce amore, set my blood on fire…







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Connecting Through Photography


As material and technological improvements replace old traditions in rural village life the cultural impact radiates throughout the community. In the encounters I have when traveling and photographing tribal life there are fleeting moments of connection. We know we are different but similar at the same time. The encounter can lead to a personal connection through photography.

It is this spontaneous connection I am looking for.

Change is coming and is inevitable and the unique traditions that separate our ancient cultures are vanishing. I hope to capture and make images that celebrate our differences and our common threads.

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Rajasthan and Gujarat-The Journey Continues

Village Life

Men In The Village

Village Schoolgirls

The group  would arrive at a village and spread out to see who we could meet and what was the story here.

Village life  is quiet in the heat of the day- much of the work is  done early in the morning and at the end of the day, so people had time to invite us into

their homes for tea.We met  school children everywhere  and sometimes would go into the schools and talk to them about  where we are   from.

By the time we left a village we would  have a trail of children and others following us back to the van. It was a good way to connect but often at odds with

creating an  unposed  photographic moment.

There was  curiosity on both sides. The women dress in floating  pink and orange chiffon saris no matter

what kind of work they are doing. They are the most  colorful  part of the harsh desert  landscape.

Yet for me , it is often  my  split toned infrared images, stripped of color, that capture the feel of the land and the rhythm of the life here.



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Spotlight on Travel Photgrapher Blog

Rabiri Shepherd In Nomads Camp-Gujarat

Tewfic El-Sawy’s The Travel Photographer Blog is my one my favorite online destinations.  I have been following his travel

tales and multimedia slide shows and now after traveling with him in India, we have become good friends.

There is so much new technology available to photographers  today ; keeping up with it is a challenge.

It ‘s so important to find the balance between the lure of  additional gear and then learning how to use it and finding

the time for keeping up our sites and blogs while still  stretching our vision and craft and actually getting to take pictures too.

In a field where we often work alone, it is wonderful to have other photographers to talk to…

Click here to article

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In Gujarat – The Hijras or Eunuchs

Hijras

The Hijras

In India, Eunuchs or Hijras often describe themselves as a third sex, and refer to themselves as “she. They are tolerated when they show up uninvited at special ceremonies such as births and weddings where they cash in for performing dances and blessings.

They are largely left to their own devices to sustain themselves – which include, dancing, singing and sexual embarrassments of various kinds.

It was not always that way for the Hijras.They used to have a place at court and were generally valued by society.

We were staying at the wonderful Rann Riders resort in Dasada, and its owner Muzahid Malik, suggested we visited Becharaji where hijras frequented its temple.”

I had read William Dalrymple’s City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi, in which he tells the stories of a few hijras in Delhi. I knew of their existence but didn’t know I would get to meet them.They live in a secret world and do not share their stories easily.

We visited the temple and they suggestively and playfully danced for our cameras amidst some wonderful old broken temple statuary.

Hijras - members of the ‘3rd gender’ in India

Hijras dancing at the Temple

Dancing Hijras