An unlikely series of dots.

Soon after year zero, it was simply a sideways V and pulsating underscore. Time passes and that very retro screen text is replaced by icons and African spear tips all set in a monotonic world. Color is added and eventually someone moves William Morris’s creation from a damp wall to a world of pixels and we are now in the era of Windows and MacOS. Color works, icons work and even pushing a mouse around seems to work but a gaudy scene of a gazelle, the moon or some South Pacific beach is always distracting to me and so wallpaper is replaced by a solid color, typically grey.

Decades ago, London was a very monotonic place. Grey skies, grey streets, grey buildings grey suits, grey cars seemingly all reflecting a sometime dourer and grey attitude. Maybe this is where I unwittingly acquired an appreciation for black and white photography.

Trained like many others, I excitedly “unpack” Leopard or was it Snow Leopard and find buried deep wallpaper by Michael Kenna. It’s simply ethereal, I love it, simple, abstract and suggestive of an opportunity filled expansive world, which post 2008 definitely didn’t appear to be.

Perspective is everything. Cost and time are huge determinants and ultimately we get to decide what are and aren’t priorities. For me, photography was simply an adjunct to a holiday and so from day one my style was best described as opportunistic and unplanned. I walk around, see, like and snap. This has carried me through countless places, some pedestrian and some more exotic. It worked well for me as impulse has netted me some wonderful people shots, moody Asian abstracts and occasionally a western landscape.

This is all the antithesis of Micheal Kenna’s wallpaper. It’s deliberate, planned and clearly done with intention to garner a picture that reduced motion and minimizes distractions to conjure an emotion from the viewer. A tripod, filters, agitated skies, early morning, late evening are all the elements of these planned creations. It works, I feel a momentary sense of peace but am rudely jerked back into the frenetic rough and tumble world of corporate Silicon Valley. Location has its benefits and by chance I find myself repeatedly pawing over iconic eight inch square Kenna originals at the end of Geary Street in San Francisco more often than not.

Memories are powerful, they linger, they grip, some wanted and many best forgotten. Photography has always been a secondary or even tertiary pursuit for me. Sometimes I wish it weren’t and I resolve for another “college try”. I try capturing the Milky Way, trips to the Great Basin, the desert between the mountains yields very little beyond frustration. Light painting of distressed and abandoned pioneer structures and mines, seemed promising but requires more planning than this opportunistic photographer seems willing to give. Kenna looms large and living minutes from a beautiful coastline, I give the moody seascapes a college try. It’s a bumpy journey but eventually I find myself on the edge of a cliff with atmospheric skies, disappearing sunlight and an Atlantic storms brewing to my left.

I’ve been led here like a horse to water. That’s the understanding and what I’ve signed up to. Not quite cheek to jowl but ten or more of us are lined up. James and Ruth hover offering advice but I think mainly ensuring we don’t plunge over the edge causing mayhem and chaos. James is rightly less than impressed with my tripod stance, obscurely stick insect like articulated at the wrong points and seemingly ready to blow over at the first huff and puff of my angry Atlantic storm. A minute, two minutes, three minutes, different filters all obliterating the light through this retired Canon camera body. I’m resolved to use what I have, mirrorless is not for me but the truth is that this exquisite 5D sR the epitome of through the lens cameras, sporting oodles of pixels, isn’t the easiest of beasts to conjure that moody Kenna. However, to my surprise I’ve managed to imitate greatness albeit on a very small scale.

Distractions rein and rain and it’s many months before I find myself staring at his printer collection. One is huge, maybe six or eight feet wide. Ludo, a landscape photographer, gallery impresario and owner of this print monster announces we could do a 48″ wide print of my Kenna impersonation. Not entirely sure what I would do with it but inherently being impulsive, I’m sold.