I am always interested in how people respond to my work, and particularly what they see in it. It is wonderful when I get feedback in person, which I got during the recent opening of Witness Marks at the Off Ludlow Gallery in Cincinnati. A roughly 5-year old boy came in with his father and they slowly walked through the exhibition, looking carefully at each photograph. When I asked the boy if he had a favorite picture, he pointed to this one:
When I asked him what it was about that picture that he liked, he said it was because all the CD cases were black on the top except for the one exactly in the middle, which was green. “Huh!”, I thought, as I looked more closely at a photograph I had viewed scores of times in the last year. Sure enough, there WAS a green jewelcase nestled in the midst of the others that I had never noticed before. That tiny little detail made a difference once I saw it, as it became a demarcation line, creating two opposing sides and interrupting the flow of CDs on the bookcase. Sometimes it takes the eyes of others to awaken us to what is there:
