Author Description

This is a book of photography by Don Carson with his wife, Susan Murphy, as the co-creating model over a 30+ year period in natural settings. There are 71 plates of photos, both B&W and color, and Susan's journal entries are included. The period begins in 1992 when, while living in Bolinas, California, Don and Susan began backpacking in the California High Sierras. Don, with almost 15 years of experience as New York City photographer, equipped with his underrated medium format Kodak Graflex XL and four Zeiss lenses, and Susan, equipped with her experience as an aerial dancer and an authentic movement dancer, began to find their photographic interpretation of the spirit as it is embodied in the natural world. They found that the human form can always find a place in the natural surroundings. The relationship is the focus. Sometimes, the human is ephemeral - a blur, a shadow or a reflection - even a reflection of something that is no longer there. Nature can also be the blur, moving through, while the human is still. In other photos an instant is held. Time ceases and Susan merges with the moment's eternity, where time and timelessness intersect. All the works in this book were created in the camera, on site. In repeating sequential images, the lens is masked off section by section as Don takes the photo, and each section is joined seamlessly within the camera, splicing together these moments in time. Their journey takes them mostly to the wildernesses of California and the Southwest. Starting in 2001 they took a hiatus while Don built and Susan directed the aerial arts center, Canopy Studio, in Athens, GA. In 2017 they decided to revisit many of the same locations to see what had changed. Had the natural world changed? Mostly they discovered new photos and visions in new and old locations. Susan asked, "Can we make our artistry a tribute to this most perfect unpretentious world of nature? How dare we? Yet we so want to have a relationship - to imprint and be imprinte