Slow Photography

Drive carefully. A wise admonition. Taken from the film "Viva Las Vegas", this warning appears on Carnival parade floats in Provincetown and on Kurt Fowl's performance art. It's the last week in August, Carnival time on Cape Cod.   So what's the point of the warning? Life is dangerous. Breathe, look around, move from your reptile brain to your frontal lobe and stay focused. Be mindful when you drive your car, and your camera.  Headlessly, we photographers ignore the sign's message. Our iPhones rise up and our awareness retreats. A series of mesmerizing sights appear: Elvis seems to replicate as he struts, Liberace smiles, Zombies gyrate their broken bodies to the disco beat of the Viva Las Vegas theme song.   Like Zombies, we iPhone-ographers lurch directly into the path of passing floats, just inches away as they roll down Commercial street. Only the parade Marshalls keep us safe, shouting "watch yourself," as floats and people begin to col

Henri Cartier-Bresson and Minor White inspired me. From their work, I learned a vital aspect of slow photography. It takes patience. Stand in one place. Watch. As the scene flows past, begin to photograph. It may take minutes or hours for your visual mind to organize the elements into an image that works. On Cape Cod, in Provincetown Mass, Commercial street is a busy place. Watching the pass, I stood opposite Shop Therapy. After moving towards and away from the store, I made this single image. Later on I divided the single frame into a triptych for printing.

Your right brain is the image.       Your left is              the thousand words.           Slow photos are the a-Has!                          between them. Slow photography crafts       moments     the world did not know         were missing Slow photography      is not what you see                but            what remained unseen                               until you.