Self Portrait | "We are not gods, we cannot ascend to heaven. No, we are mortal men. Only the gods live forever. Our days are few in number, and whatever we achieve is a puff of wind. Why be afraid then, since sooner or later death may come?... I will cut down the tree; I will kill Humbaba; I will make a lasting name for myself; I will stamp my fame on men's minds forever." Gilgamesh - The Epic of Gilgamesh, 2000 BCE.
During the past two years I have chronologically arranged the negatives, prints, slides and digital files of 47 years of photography into a manageable easily viewed database. A unique part of this history in photographs is that it begins with photographs shot when I was eight years old. Studying these photographs as a personal history has led me to an understanding of why I create. My work both presents this idea and at the same time serves as an example of it. In tracing my physical and spiritual development I have become aware of the idea that the history of a unit, be it organic or inorganic, reflects the history of life and the cosmos. The photographs, arranged in chronologically ordered panels, cover a wide range of subjects in black and white, in color, on film and digital media. |
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Areas of my life |
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A History of my personal Photography | |||||||||
A General History of Photography | Leon Goldsmith |