The Recognition of Prior Assumptions

I can’t believe it. I finally have a finished mock-up of my new book The Recognition of Prior Assumptions. It was an incredibly arduous task to put this thing together but It feels good to have reached this stage. Now all I need to do is shop it around to publishing houses who would be willing to put out a book of photographic triptychs with text over the top (due to the size and number of pages there is no reasonable way to self-publish this thing). I will be talking to a few different publishers soon but any suggestions of contacts or publishers for this type of book would be greatly appreciated. With any luck this beautiful book will be available for sale soon. Below is some info about the project. Cheers…

This series, The Recognition of Prior Assumptions is a combination of digital photography and text. The triptych photographs and the corresponding poems were created over the span of three years, from 2008-2011. The work is concerned with the constantly evolving human patterns of behavior and creation. Both behavior and creation are infused simultaneously with a virtuous and ignoble personal history. Each poem deals in some way with the patterns created by human behavior, and it is the recognition of these patterns that comes to inform our worldview. Similarly, the photographs illustrate the interconnectedness of specific spaces and aim to extrapolate the patterns that occur within the creation of a specific site, whether it be natural, man-made or some combination of the two. These patterns of creation are subtly illustrated in all things humans work to build and appreciate.

Because both poetry and triptychs are traditions rooted in storytelling, the poems provide a greater depth to the narrative in the photographs while the photographs allow the text a physical space in which to be contemplated. It is in these quiet moments of reflection when we recognize intimate truths hidden within our prior assumptions. This series expresses the feeling of those frequent, if fleeting, moments of insight.

St. Andrews

Deutschland

The Classic Fleet Collective Building

This is an image I made for the Fleet Collective in Dundee, Scotland. It’s meant to showcase their new offices in the old Dundee Chamber Building. Fleet Collective is a group of creatives working on solo and collaborative projects in fields ranging from filmmaking and design to public relations.  I managed to grab this on one of the only blue sky days in the last two weeks…that’s Scotland for ya.

Scottish Fog

My favorite days besides the clean, crisp and sunny Scottish days, have got to be the ones where the world is shrouded in fog. Sometimes you can’t even see outside your windows due to the gray curtains of mist. These are the interesting days of trying to push your way through the city, using your body as a blunt instrument and carving out a space for yourself under the mysterious canopy.

Aye, the Silvery Tay

I’ve been waiting for the right conditions to take some shots of the Tay, which is right outside my window, and finally last week a dark but dry morning arrived. I was looking to get some moody Scottish sky and ideally I wanted the far end of the Tay Rail Bridge to be shrouded in fog. I didn’t get exactly the conditions I wanted because the weather around here changes so quickly, but I did get three shots that made it a worthwhile day.

Floating Cities

Good Reads

I just finished The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst, a book which some consider to be the bible of typography. Bringhurst is an amazing writer and poet and has the ability to explain tedious and difficult concepts with brevity and wit. I love reading books like this which give a foundation to the things you tend to do instinctively as a creative designer/photographer. It’s a good reminder that many of the design elements that simply look good or correct to us, have a scientific heritage going back thousands off years. It is wonderful to make the connections between what feels right and the underlying reasons why. It always excites me when I can take the lessons from something as simple as a book about typography and apply them to photography, design and even life as a whole. Maybe that means Bringhurst is an amazing writer…and maybe I just appreciate his search for truth in simplicity and purposefulness of form. Either way I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the role of type in design, writing and everyday life. There are some timeless messages in here.

Happy Halloween

On Saturday I had some good Scotch and participated in a mini pumpkin carving contest. Euan Gray and I teamed up to offer our take on a holiday at Loch Ness. It depicts Urqhart Castle along with St. Columba discovering the loch for the first time. Haha. I hope everyone had a good one…Happy Halloween!

Portraits for DJCAD

I just finished some portraits for the Master of Design and Master of Design Ethnography students at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, UK. I basically had carte blanche to do what I wanted so I thought I would build a three-dimensional background to represent design and design research. I also wanted it to be white and shaped only by shadows and light. Originally I had planned to make pyramids (actually tetrahedrons, thanks Euan Gray!) of different sizes but the more focused and symmetrical background ended up making a much cleaner picture. And since these portraits were for design students and teachers, I wanted to make sure the end results was crisp and simple. For those wondering, the background is perfect square pieces of paper, folded at the diagonals and then cut down one crease and folded over. I spent one whole day cutting, gluing and arranging but it was actually quite therapeutic and calming. Here are a few results…