Upon viewing my work at an exhibition once, a woman looked over at me and said, "You must have been good in Geometry."
In fact, I was. I was miserable in Algebra1 and Algebra 2 and never dared venture toward a Calculus class. To this day I insist that I'm "terrible at math." But I did love geometry. Give me lines, angles, triangles and circles! Equip me with a compass, a protractor, a straightedge, a mechanical pencil and some graph paper!
Am I even aware that I see the world as a never-ending parade of lines and shapes? And that I emphasize and/or arrange them in particular ways when I’m photographing? I doubt it, but the way I frame images gives me all sorts of clues that I must. Well, it really is kind of obvious, I guess. But it’s definitely subconscious. I never exclaim aloud – or even to myself – wow, look at those patterns! Perhaps these arrangements, this way of seeing, help me make sense of the world around me. Have you ever thought about "how" you see?
Yesterday I was on a train for a few hours. I'd grown tired of the podcasts and music I was listening to, so I decided to take a picture with my trusty iPhone. I didn’t move from my seat. I didn’t even shift position. I just framed what was in front of me and took a couple shots. Then I looked to see how what I was seeing translated into a photograph, and I was struck more by the geometry of it than the two women I meant to photograph. That’s when the whole thing about lines and shapes came into my head.
Then, for fun, I dug up some of the pictures I made when I was 8 and 9 years old to look more closely at my early sense of composition. The juxtaposition of lines and shapes played a big part in the photos I took... even way back then.
I guess I was just wired to enjoy geometry and use it subconsciously to express myself.
Top photo: from my seat on the train
All the rest: pictures made when I was a kid
sitting on a train with my iPhone
2/14/2026
Upon viewing my work at an exhibition once, a woman looked over at me and said, "You must have been good in Geometry."
In fact, I was. I was miserable in Algebra1 and Algebra 2 and never dared venture toward a Calculus class. To this day I insist that I'm "terrible at math." But I did love geometry. Give me lines, angles, triangles and circles! Equip me with a compass, a protractor, a straightedge, a mechanical pencil and some graph paper!
Am I even aware that I see the world as a never-ending parade of lines and shapes? And that I emphasize and/or arrange them in particular ways when I’m photographing? I doubt it, but the way I frame images gives me all sorts of clues that I must. Well, it really is kind of obvious, I guess. But it’s definitely subconscious. I never exclaim aloud – or even to myself – wow, look at those patterns! Perhaps these arrangements, this way of seeing, help me make sense of the world around me. Have you ever thought about "how" you see?
Yesterday I was on a train for a few hours. I'd grown tired of the podcasts and music I was listening to, so I decided to take a picture with my trusty iPhone. I didn’t move from my seat. I didn’t even shift position. I just framed what was in front of me and took a couple shots. Then I looked to see how what I was seeing translated into a photograph, and I was struck more by the geometry of it than the two women I meant to photograph. That’s when the whole thing about lines and shapes came into my head.
Then, for fun, I dug up some of the pictures I made when I was 8 and 9 years old to look more closely at my early sense of composition. The juxtaposition of lines and shapes played a big part in the photos I took... even way back then.
I guess I was just wired to enjoy geometry and use it subconsciously to express myself.
Top photo: from my seat on the train
All the rest: pictures made when I was a kid
