Ed Barham Photography

Photographic Arts

Phone: 501.804.8063

“Hold your face up to the light.”

Counting Houselr

 

I found it impossible to walk through the lobby of the Bank of America Building in Houston without stopping. The giant Gothic cathedral-style window is spectacular at any time of the day, I’ll bet, but my timing on this trip was perfect.

For me, the play of light and shadow and the contrast between medieval and modern suggest the timeless and spiritual nature of great art at work in architecture. The patterns and lines reflect in an urban setting the geometric harmony of nature at the cellular level. The picture reminds me of a favorite quote from Bill Wilson, “Hold your face up to the light, even though, for the moment, you cannot see.”

The window opens onto a carefully-planned view of the modern building across the street, the old Penzoil Buidling, also the design of architect Phillip Johnson. Johnson said once that he wished that someone would ask him to design a cathedral, but I’m glad that he talked someone into letting him build this window.

This picture was made on a tour of Houston conducted by my cousin, Joe Patterson, who works for the Bank of America, and gets to experience this window almost every working day. Joe was kind enough to drive the get-away car while I stole images of the great architectural art collection that is downtown Houston. Johnson said that he saved his best buildings for Houston, and these two are the cream of the crop.

Posted on by Ed Barham in Bill Wilson, Creative Files, Personal Collection

Mountain Morning

Blanchard Springs CreekHDR

The water comes out of the rocks after emerging from its source deep inside the mountain, where the temperature is a constant 58 degrees. in the summertime, when air temperatures are warm and the relative humidity is high, a veil of fog forms over the creek early in the day, before the sun is strong enough to burn it away. For a few hours, there is magic in the little valley at Blanchard Springs, near Mt. View, Arkansas.

The little bridge and some of the major landscaping was done back in the 1940’s by the Youth Conservation Corps, but the majestic caverns weren’t completed until the 1960’s. I visited there often as a child, because my grandparents lived in Mt. View. As children, we swam in the creek and ate fried chicken on Sundays after church.

DSC_2808Blanchard Springs Walklr

DSC_2826Blanchard Springs Walklr

 

The Treelr

Posted on by Ed Barham in Personal Collection, Uncategorized

Clouds

Clouds

We’ve had a rainy spring, tornadoes and thunderstorms, but we have been fortunate at our house and haven’t even lost electrical power until last night. These are the clouds that took our power with them. Our big oak trees were swaying like grass in the sheets of rain and straightline wind for a little while after California Chrome lost the triple crown. Even God had a bet on California Chrome.

Posted on by Ed Barham in Personal Collection

Raspberry Rythm

Raspberry aar

What I see is the pattern that nature is filled with, the order of things. It is the basis of art, music and poetry, and it is the ground of all being. We imitate it when we sing or play, and our connection to it is the heartbeat of spirituality. Today, I want to look more closely and see the rhythms in everyday things.

Posted on by Ed Barham in Creative Files

Sylamore Rocks copy

 

When I was little, I had a rock collection. I loved the colors and shapes, all the different kinds of rocks, and I had a little shelf to display my treasures. I remember walking around with my eyes to the ground, searching for the unusual specimen to add to the collection. Today I try to remember how important it is to look very deeply into the ordinary surroundings you have in front of you at every moment. “Be here now” is the mantra that drives creativity.

 

Posted on by Ed Barham in Creative Files

Jackson Square

Jackson Square1

Going back through some old files, I found this one of Jackson Square in New Orleans. Dedicated in 1815 to the victorious American General and future president, Andrew Jackson, the St. Louis Cathedral in the background reminds me of Disneyland. This picture was overlooked when I started to work on the images I made that day, because there were so many that I wanted to work on first. It has been waiting to have its moment on the stage.

 

Posted on by Ed Barham in Old South

Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar in New Orleans

LaFitte's 8.10 copy

Lafitte’s, widely acknowledged to be the oldest continually occupied bar in America, was opened in 1761 on Bourbon Street. I made a print of this photo for our friend, Martha, who is visiting here on business for a few days. Martha lives in New Orleans and loves this old place. Here is an excerpt from the website:

“Jean Lafitte — privateer, entrepreneur, sailor, diplomat, spy, hero of the Battle Of New Orleans.  Lafitte led a colorful and mysterious life in the New World.  It is unclear where and when Lafitte was born, but his presence in New Orleans and Bartaria dates about 1770.  He was the man to see for whatever one wanted. In 1814, as the British lay at the mouth of the river, Lafitte rushed powder, flint, and troops to General Jackson at Chalmette.  Rather than a poorly supplied, out-manned force, the British stepped into a screaming hell of pirates, woodsmen, Indians and free people of color, under cover of a dense fog and an even more dense anti-British attitude.  The British were routed.  His good deed done, the “hero” headed to sea and more familiar deeds. “

http://www.lafittesblacksmithshop.com/Homepage.html

Posted on by Ed Barham in Old South

Garden House BW

A long exposure on a tripod and dramatic exterior lighting on a house in the Garden District of New Orleans provided the subject material for this experimental black and white photo. I can’t decide whether I like the color version better or not. Neither of these images were available to me when I was learning photography almost fifty years ago, back when you had to use film and conventional processing methods to get results. The cost of producing these results, and the training required kept me from being a contributor. Only a few could afford to produce results that you could see and evaluate within short periods of time–most of us had to use color processing labs that took weeks to turn around finished prints.Today I can create either one of these within minutes, alongside many other choices and fine-tuning adjustments within minutes, thanks to computer technology. I don’t pay for film and processing, but meaningless files pile up in virtual storage.

Garden House Colors

I hear a lot of arguments about the meaning of this evolution, especially to those who used to be the elite few masters of the craft, working artists who dedicated hours and resources to the early steps taken in this visual revolution. Have we lost the icons of the art of photography? Today the average person can produce results that even the masters could not approach, but the flood of mediocre images is the real harvest. I read somewhere this week that ten percent of all the images ever made were made in the last year. It is democratic, populist and has opened the doors to almost everyone who wants to create or merely record self-expression.

Posted on by Ed Barham in Creative Files, Old South