I see your photography as residing on the perception side of Art and Perception. The art comes, but for it to be satisfying it should stem from some degree of affection.

I remember sub bases in Holland: hulking concrete monoliths,immovable against the shifting sands. That was back in ’53. For all I know, they’re still there. I imagine that they would be very hard to photograph effectively.

I am not a boating person, I hike in as much solitude as I can find unless I am in NYC. I know nothing about marinas on the Great Lakes. The German post World War II marina lies on a road, put there by the ‘Allies’ to obstruct the submarine harbor, on the way to my dike walk.

The point that I think that I may be making is that your shots of the dunes are about a resonance between yourself and that stretch of shoreline – an affinity toward that kind of situation. that seems to be the case.

I have shown a habit of presenting ‘travelogues’. On 06_01_07, when I first tried out my new and better camera, Karl commented on an early MI dune post: These look like normal rather than “art” photos. I wonder if simply putting them into black and white would make them seem “arty”?

Now, you use the modifier ‘almost’ Yet you appear to be standing back to take your photographs almost like a tourist.. It seems that I have made progress in the last half year as a photographer.

One of the differences between my recent dune pictures and my northern Germany pictures is my available time, solitude and mobility. In Frisia, I am on short visits depending on my almost 90 year old mother for driving. I learned driving in Manhattan and yet, have never yet dared driving in Germany, my mother’s originally fierce driving competence still inhibits me.

And you are right about the nostalgia – remnants of a life lived.

On the technical side, this was an attempt to capture the grim colors seen also in some of Paula M-B’s landscapes.

A few drive-by thoughts…

You have canted the horizon slightly to the left in your mud flat image; this in the interests of facilitating the flow to the sea. Imagine canting one’s camera this way and that and seeing in the viewfinder very different worlds resulting from one’s induced slopes and angles. Hold the camera horizontally and the glass retains its water, tilt the camera and the water spills.

I do have to ask about your marina in an earlier post. It is almost identical to those here, with the exception, perhaps, of boat names being in another language. Did the power of association – the “well known place” – influence your decision to include this, rather than one along Lake Michigan? The point that I think that I may be making is that your shots of the dunes are about a resonance between yourself and that stretch of shoreline – an affinity toward that kind of situation. Your home images seem to be more about a life lived, about a human presence to which you did and do contribute. Yet you appear to be standing back to take your photographs almost like a tourist. Is that the result of a separation brought by time? I’ve been indulging in a kind of tin-horn photo-psychoanalysis of late, with you and Steve my most recent victims. But your photo essays make me wonder what I would do with a camera back in my own home town.

The sense of the (well-known) place has become, as you know, very important to me.

that you succeed in translating to others .

I am glad about his conversation. When I first read your last question, my immediate response was that I was taking pictures as an emotional response. Then, I remembered that I did do some planning. But I was still on the wrong track. It is all of those, the artistic black box of my mind.

June, both you and Steve

are helping to make me more confident.Thank you.

The sense of the (well-known) place has become, as you know, very important to me. So I’m interested to hear that you are working off memory, present observation, and, as Steve has wangled out of you, multiple observations. I’m not saying this well, but I think it’s the combination of familiarity, memory, close observation and artistic consideration –all go into making the photos outstanding.