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The Red Wheelbarrow

"The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams.

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.



This superb, simple poem is intensely thought provoking. I won't go into what I think about it, nor it's meaning. In fact, I think it isn't meant to mean anything other than what it is. It reminds me of "Fountain' by Marcel Duchamp in the way it makes you consider something in a new way. The one problem I have is the lack of emotion. It spurs conversation and thought, but doesn't spur my body and heart. Yet it is still a remarkable poem.

why do I photograph?

I have been questioning a lot of things trying to get a deeper understanding of art, photography, and what their roles in my life are. I have come to a conclusion; albeit I am not sure if my answer is true, but it feels true. There is a poem I just read by Robert Hayden called "Those Winter Sundays" that sparked my theory.

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?

Why did Robert's dad, even in the cold of winter on Sunday mornings, get out of bed before anyone else to warm the rooms for his family, even when he would get no appreciation? The answer is love. You do things out of love that have no logic, but you feel with every bone in your body you need to do it without care if you get appreciation. In fact, quite often, love can feel lonely. Art is that same kind of love. It can be lonely, it can be frustrating, and quite often it goes unappreciated (even by yourself). Yet you feel with every part of you that you need to create, you need to express yourself. When I take a photograph that moves me in a peculiar way, it just clicks and everything feels right. So when I struggle through days, weeks, and months not knowing why I photograph or where it is all going, I need to realize that photography is a part of me, like a child is part of their mother. I will give my heart to art, even if it won't give back to me. So that is why I photograph. It is a part of who I am. It is a part of my genetic make up. It just feels right.