Apricots II
Facing West
People have asked me if I “set up” the objects on the kitchen table in my pho- tographs. The answer is yes and no. More often than not there is already a vase of flowers on the table put there by my wife, Jeanne. She loves flowers, and cuts them in the summer, or buys them when they are not growing in the yard. As a great deal of our life takes place in the kitchen, the table becomes cluttered much too easily; unread mail, books, fruit to be eaten, a saltcellar, glasses, things that are plain, but also beautiful. If the light comes around just right I will take some photos. It must be bright, but at the same time dark. The time available is very limited, and varies with the season. And so there is drama; the drama in the things themselves, and the drama in the activity of their capture. I hover around rapidly taking photographs, trying different angles and compo- sitions, near and far, peering up and looking down. Sometimes, feeling almost like an interloper, I change the relationship of the objects slightly. All too soon the sun has moved on. If all these disparate elements, in a sense the opposites, have come together in a oneness, I have a picture; if not I must wait for the next sunny day.
_ Stephen Poleskie
Statement for exhibit with wife, novelist Jeanne Mackin at Bright Hill Word & Image Gallery at 94 Church St. in Treadwell.
Apricots I
June 9, 2011 O-Town Scene 9
