July 21, 2023

Creation Myth #5
Bozeman, Montana
2023

The result of my summer composite photo effort. This one started with just the main large decorated bird which I had more or less accidentally created one day while messing around with some photos. It then percolated in my head for some time before I started really working on it a month or so ago.  I went through at least ten major background changes before I settled on a general look and theme for the image. There is a vague creation story in my head that directed or perhaps evolved along with the final composition; but vague is the key word here, with the final result coming from somewhere in my brain that escapes my ability to meaningfully describe it in words.

Next month, a portfolio of my composite images will appear in Lenswork magazine. It will be my ninth publication in Lenswork since 2008, but my first one since they started accepting color photographs a few years back. Frankly I liked Lenswork better back when it was dedicated solely to black and white photography for some reason, but given they made the switch I figured I might as well take advantage of the opportunity. Also, of all the portfolios I’ve submitted to Lenswork, I think this one was the biggest stretch content-wise for the magazine, i.e., the furthest outside the boundaries of the usual work published there. As such, I was worried it wouldn’t even receive serious consideration, so I’m grateful to editor Brooks Jensen for accepting it.