I Now Want To Be A Photographer

I Wanted Life To Be Episodic. I Wanted To Be A Magazine Photographer And I Was Willing To Do What It Took To Become That.

In The Last Workshop I Taught, A Woman Flew In From Thailand. She's A Medical Doctor In Bangkok. I Asked Her In Her One-on-one Session Where She Wanted Photography To Be In Her Life.did She Want A Second Career? Was It About Earning Money? Or Was It Art? And She Said "none Of Those. I Want Photography To Be Serious In My Life." It Would Be Like Someone Wanting Music, Like Piano Playing, To Be A Richer, Deeper, And Maybe Even Harder Experience.

My Parents, Grandmother And Brother Were Teachers. My Mother Taught Latin And French And Was The School Librarian. My Father Taught Geography And A Popular Class Called Family Living, The Precursor To Sociology, Which He Eventually Taught. My Grandmother Was A Beloved One-room School Teacher At Knob School, Near Sonora In Larue County, Ky.

There Are Grander And More Sublime Landscapes - To Me. There Are More Compelling Cultures. But What Appeals To Me About Central Montana Is That The Combination Of Landscape And Lifestyle Is The Most Compelling I've Seen On This Earth. Small Mountain Ranges And Open Prairie, And Different Weather, Different Light, All Within A 360-degree View.

I Now Want To Be A Photographer Of My Time, And Our Common Culture.