If I May Speak From The Heart, I Will Tell You A Story
Kengo Kuma: Yusuhara Bridge
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I remember emerging from the ransacked above ground tomb in (The Cities of the Dead) New Orleans Saint Louis Cemetery. Danger prevails. Blackness lingered. I blinked my bleary eyes repeatedly. I needed to see the light. A moving shadow alerted me to a serendipitous moment standing before my lens. A unique shard of light led me to a momentarily unknown opportunity. My eyes, quietly excited, engaged the unknown. The camera responded to the angle of repose. I imagined that a special moment just whispered hello. I heard my shutter snap the unique vantage point. Every picture should feel like this.
Architecture often whispers to this photographer. Most times a magicians wand cast a spell spreading fairy dust upon my eyes. Photographs then becomes very clear. The whispers become revelations about my quixotic freedom. The magical whispers reveal unseen characters in architecture, I pounce. I share these whispering spells, because I am sharing past dreams and future dreams regarding the magic in photographing architecture.
Nobody dances a jig more lively than I do when I have snippety snapped-snapped the images that makes me not only embrace the captured image, but allows me to celebrate why I became a photographer.
There is a possibility that the “Olympics” will be played in Japan this summer. It reminds me of my talks with architect Kengo Kuma. We had discussed the possibility of photographing his Olympic Stadium design. A few years ago while I was in Japan for other Kuma projects, I passed by the stadium footprint one hundred times to imagine how I would make something unique when the time arrived to stand shoulder to shoulder with millions laser fixed with camera/phone in hand. My mind seemed engineered by a drone searching aloft for discovery. I allowed my future dream to imagine what Richard Schulman might do in the moments to be. I wanted to hold my breath until I could yell “I gotcha”. My successful photographs are always followed by “I gotcha”. Sometimes I need a motivation. I never know what the motivation will be until I realize I am drawn to what might be akin to escaping from being alone in darkness, to awakening to new found light.
My mind circled around the Yusuhara bridge before this day incalculable times. Yusuhara became a new awakening for my camera. I remember standing on the banks of the Yusuhara river. I dreamed of crossing the river to the forest. I could disappear into a new found darkness. Echoing sounds of Wild Boar and Black Bears and more wildness dared me to crossover to what might be my end.
I wanted to confront my inspirational fear and engage wild animals face to face. Maybe magical realism was my real life. Fear pulled me as if on a leash. I began to wander to the other side of the bridge. I unexpectedly stepped back, and magically heard what was certainly whispered “look up”. I found the bridge I needed to see. I could step away from the river and breathe, “I gotcha”.
There is always a curious awakening to what may be the shot that should be made. This is not about the best photograph, but the process of discovery that enlivens every time I have stopped to recognize the experience that photography provides.
Fifty thousand examples live in my archives. So many frames have the architect’s noted surprise attached to the image. Where will it end, I pray it never does
Frank Gehry: “I Never saw this angle before” of Disney Hall
Thom Mayne: “How did you know to include the ball” Diamond Ranch High School
Billie Tsien, Tod Williams: “You must have waited a long time to get this angle…” New York Folk Art Museum