Peter J. Crowley

Fine Art Photographer

Autumn in my small circle

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October 20th 2020. I have been seeing photos of fall in New England missing my home first sixty four years. There is foliage out here but not the same expansive waves of color. Around my block there are few hard wood trees. But many fall flowers in my 10 block world. Each day the same blocks seeking a highlight. 

Childhood always a highlight! 

Simple ground cover looking down to find a small world of color. 

October’s Vibrancy resides in flowers, bushes and in my rectangle.

So much color for a B+W photographer. Seeing small with a desire to have the image printed very large. 

Rain drops backlit on my lettuce. 

At the outer  edge of my waking world there is the silly walk zone.

October 20th the Pumpkin  tree is ready to harvest. October 20th after the rain.

More shades of red October 17th jump forward from negative space. My yard fall flowers dance through negative space September 19th Vibrant I love vibrant September 19th. On the 19th of September the light was quite spectacular.

October 20th even a bit of color from a pine. 

 

Winter skies filled with rain will limit my strolls. I will find other subjects to shoot.

 

peace

Monday Morning Sept 21st 2020

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A little before 7 am I roll out of bed and start the routine. Inhaler, rinse the powder from mouth. Coffee to desk. It it is quiet, not Vermont quiet but suburban indoor quiet. Palm on forehead looking down at the keyboard. My wheel spins waiting for a response. Repeated sips of Joe and the same look at the keyboard. Today this pause was lasting longer then most days. Does the music set the mood or does the mood set the music. A recurring theme today no music except for Tom Rush “Urge for Going” in my head. The mood is dark gray like the autumn sky. The first cup of coffee cooled I play Tom’s version of the Joni Mitchel song. Then Thirsty Boots, Eric Anderson melancholy is the mood that is set. Where am I urged to go?  A series of Icy winter landscapes. One posted to FB with the song. Another now posted here.

The road most traveled to Carl and Maarit’s 2008,-2014 Sunday football, frivolity and food.  My favorite world I still visit on the phone with Maarit and inside my head with Carl. Truffles with my coffee to get inside my mind to obscure reality of todays world back to my world. Just like that and it is noon time for breakfast. Hors d’oeuvre as the cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, onions and Linguica simmer awaiting the egg. I swallow the morning pills. The truffle kicks in along  as I wander through old life photos. Liz will be here soon with videos of Lilith now almost two the light of her life. Children are so wonderful lifting my spirits. There are highlights I find in the shadows. A short walk today vision is off. I’m taking steroids to help my lungs to recover from 12 days of hazardous air, ah the fire season. But I can see clearly enough to find an image and Auto Focus handles the details 1/2 block 3-5 images and back home.

Ground cover and flowers since March. May and June the garden, cooking and a few Vision Quests. So many flowers so few humans momentary interactions no real depth. Simon who I saw in Safeway in the parking lot I introduced my self we shook hands followed by a short conversation a portrait. This women and her dog Jasper on a walk in my neighborhood. I also shot a portrait of just her face. After I took the shot she comes over to me “just a minute” she walked to me to close but we old folks have so little interaction. I could not deny her she held out her arm to show me a tattoo. I feared it would be a holocaust number. It wasn’t it was a Philips screw followed by the letter U we laughed loudly.  She wandered off up the street repeating screw you with a loud joyful laugh.  Stale hot indoor air cleared late on the 19th. Out early on the 20th my lettuce has bolted, Beefsteak Tomatoes dead, other tomatoes not well late summer replaced by late autumn. Like early spring, summer, autumn is also missed. What is called the new normal that the optimists think and politicians pretend that there is going back to the old life. Fight climate change in your new Pickup, Massive SUV or any 7 0f the top 10 selling new cars, and protest against oil companies. Blame absolves you of your sins.

I don’t live in the new normal sure I wear my mask and rarely eat or go out anymore. My life is in my world of images, light, laughter, complete sentences and listening. Those who listen to me know how anti AI I have always been. Now AI scrubs away at human interaction Inara back in Zoom school there is a group of 5 who will gather three days a week in a back yard to learn and develop their social education. She will visit me once a week after pods. Sunday we went to Traditions for Kirsten to shop local and sorbet for us kids. A fruit fly on the window she though it was her new favorite bug. We alliterated Fruit Flies expanding from a tongue twister to Fabulous, French, Fried Fruit, Flies even the sorbet server joined into the loud guffaws. Out to the table we continued this silly word game. Silly has been absent from us as well. First follow the rules so we don’t get grandpa sick. May and she was able to return to visit. Lately there has been, fear and sadness in her eyes. We stop at the clothes part of Traditions to tell mom we are walking to the water but 1/2 block  on she says maybe the grassy area by the fountain will do. Our last stroll to Puget Sound from Traditions the playground was to crowded to many kids without masks she decides this from 50 yards away. Her decision to go to the grassy area was her fear. She is dealing, adjusting but there is a sense of loss. But there was French Fried ..fruit flies to bring childhood silly to return for a few minutes Sunday. But there were other highlights a trip to Westport to the cool 70’s with a breeze on the hottest day in Olympia where it reached 106 degrees. 

Upon arrival there is sun screen, a kite next the a large driftwood log that I can sit on, our spot.

My garden provided fresh tomatoes, lettuce, lemon cucumbers and visual stimulation. This flower child now a senior flower child longs for humanity. Conversations in person, lunch at a café people watching now relegated to take out picked up by Liz. And flowers in my window out my door the walks become shorter with less to see    repeated.

Old themes repeat Doors and triangles

Simplicity just light. It is always Light to share a story to appeal to humanity.  

Today’s 9/27 stroll postponed as I share light here. The afternoon showers arrive early. Yet a late afternoon walk in the golden hour. Seeing, breathing peace. 

A six day conversation with a Senior flower child and you.

love and peace

A Day in Northampton Summer The 80’s

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Most days now I am up early sometimes even out for the morning light. More flowers on my walks new inhaler better breathing, less inspired by the flowers but the air is cleaner. Birds singing, children  playing rarely close enough to catch but a glimpse. In my mind I am a child part of the chorus of glee. Inside it is me, Miles, John, Duke, and Oliver.  Searching my archives seeking my Photo Journalism for the Connecticut State Library. The haystack is full of distractions never printed negatives, old favorites. I live here in memories, stories of happy times before the world I loved died. It is said an artist creates for themselves. I enjoy folks seeing my images but not enough to live this day on Anti Social Media. The anxiety of hate and hopelessness amplifies my stress with a negative effect on my COPD. So here I will be telling stories living in my own time. Just me, Inara Wings of Fire, Dragons Life a virtual life. Liz shops and we garden with an occasional vision quest. 

Summer Northampton

Omelettes,  BLT’s  a cold soda. Start or finish  a day trip.

City Taxi pre-Uber I imagine Smithies rides to Amherst  for parties, the days game, an autumn afternoon. Just around town or sitting on the bench waiting for friends returning from home after a break. Another time another place.  At an outdoor concert 1985 two stages, Tom Rush, Jerry Jeff Walker many in the crowd scurried away for the food concessions stopped in their tracks when Jerry Jeff started to wail not the country music they expected. Settling in again as a strong breeze blew some of their Cocaine of the mirror. No one was upset I’m sure there was more. 

Catching some rays on the Y’s fire escape. Perhaps a human perhaps a dummy we never spoke. Many days spent in Northampton an oasis of creativity, studios, gallerias,  trendy shops, and cafes. Pretty people a blend of old and new architecture. I would go up to Amherst Wednesday to help layout the Valley Advocate after the Hartford edition began. I was the first staff photographer in Hartford.  Working full time as a paste up artist 2nd shift at the Hartford Courant surprisingly I often was sick Wednesday nights recovering at the Advocate in Amherst. 

Back to her dorm just a silhouette rushes back, a days classes ending, a forgotten book? So many tales these walls hold Dorms eloquent designs from the past well kept telling stories of prestige. One of the Seven Sisters dating back to the late 1800’s originally all Women’s Colleges.  Barnard, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, and Radcliffe were given the name “the Seven Sisters” in 1927, because of their relative affiliations with the men’s colleges.  The schools are also sometimes referred to as “the Daisy Chain” or “the Heavenly Seven.” The name Seven Sisters is also a reference to the Greek myth of The Pleiades, the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione.

Composing in the viewfinder.  How I work I saw this light my angle was right for the detail I wanted of the two people on bicycles. A second shot squared up the frame  frame but in 4-5 seconds the two were gone. That image doesn’t make the grade. No Photo Shop, no crop seeing the entire frame subject and negative space.  My process, technique no screen to see if I got the subject. I got it I knew seeing the details not just the subject.  Dance, theater, movement understanding I had to shoot 1/2 second prior to create the moment I wanted. One image at a time fire cock fire. Process often three bodies in the bag slow Apx 100, TriX 400 or 800, color negs or transparencies. TriX the in hand body for most trips, Rarely shooting the same image in both B+W or Color seeing in B+W but noticing a color image switching cameras. The big bag full when I left, Free to see whatever on a journey. Now a little bag a decision of what to carry  when I head out. Then often seeing an image for a lens didn’t have in the bag. Having two diggies has alleviated  that somewhat. A roll of TriX sits in my home I may try to manually focus with a Nikon F next time? No room in the bag for 3 bodies and four lenses. 

Always time for a cookie, a scone or Portuguese Sweet Bread strolling Fox Point in Providence in love. But those days by the bay on cobblestone streets a memory that has burned off like the morning fog. Another time another place. 

 

Today there will be new memories that will burn off like the fog by a new bay. Today I’ll visit the 80’s a time of process, love and a hope for a highlight. Peace

peace pjc