Single Daisy, 1994

I see that beautiful spirit

Floating there with the darkness

Unique in all the Universe

Not appeared accidentally

Not created deliberately 

It… simply… just… happened

I made this picture in 1994 as a student at OIP&T (The Ohio Institute of Photography & Technology) in Dayton, OH. It was my first attempt at using a view camera, 4x5. This was before the digital revolution really took hold. I was 18 years old, full of ambition, optimism and eager to learn photography very well. Finally getting my hands on a view camera really did fill me with joy. I sort of knew what I was doing but not from experience, only from reading about large format photography on my own and ruminating on the principles. This image wasn't even the product of an assignment. The moment I was granted lab privileges, I marched my little ass into that studio and made this image.

I still love this picture so much. I didn't consider myself an animist at the time, that word hadn't even entered my purview. But I was an animist. I still am. Seeing light. Working with darkness. Photographing Spirit. I didn't know it in 1994 but this image would become my own personal emblem for my worldview. 

Long Beach From The Queen Mary

Long Beach, California 

My Partner and I have always loved this town...

and The Queen Mary

Post Flash Flood, Dark Moon

Raw Nature in an Artificial Landscape. 

It’s been a really wet spring in Las Vegas Valley and we had thunderstorms over the weekend during the dark moon. I went to visit one of my favorite spots in my new neighborhood and found that a flash flood had coursed through earlier that day. This is usually a paved walking path, not a riverbed. The flood had left sediment and carved beautiful patterns in it, then disappeared. The raw power of Nature was still palpable even though the event had passed.

Vegas is a giant rainwater catchment system. All stormwater is collected and funneled through a network of channels on the surface and underground tunnels into the city’s water supply via the Las Vegas Wash which acts like a natural water filter.

Click Here For More About The Las Vegas Watershed

Agapanthus

Agapanthus, 2006 by Norm Halm