I’ve had this blog nearly four years and have never really revealed anything up here about myself.  I’m not going to start today, but I think it is important that people know the inspiration behind the photos.

Years ago I was an intern in Washington DC.  I mean years ago.  The other other guy was president.  The current president was a glint in some Chicagoan’s eye.  I mean he wasn’t a glint in his mother’s eye, but he was no where to be seen.

Three days a week I worked at what was before my current job, the greatest job I have ever had.  Two days a week there was class going and other things.  The other things involved long stretches without sleeping.  On those two days a week we had class at a place called the Brookings Institution.  All I remember from that place was the continual pouring into glasses of water to stay awake after I had consumed multiple cups of coffee.  I was young!

Everyday I would walk the halls of the Brookings Institute and they had the most amazing set of photographs.  This is a political think tank, quite a famous one, but this place also had a remarkable collection of modern photos.  On the walls were these photos by this Japanese photographer whose name escapes me at the moment and he photographed these insanely wide expanses of water.  I used to sit in class, sip my water and wonder.  Did he take that photo with a large format camera?  Does he have a Hasselblad?  When am I going to get a Hasselblad?  How can I get one?  What kind of processing technique did he use?  Was it on slides?

Meanwhile, some political expert would be going on and on about something very important like redistricting or the role of third parties in American politics.  Yes, this is important I should not knock this and I did learn a lot, but it was the photographs that I remember.

In the years since, I have shot the water many a time to try and reproduce the photos I saw.  I might be getting close to what I saw. But what I do realize is that if politics were really meant to be my path, I would remember what the guy said and not recounting my memories of photos I saw [redacted] year ago: