The Copyist

In 1969, I was given what is now an out-of-print, cult volume published by the Sierra Club and Ballantine Books (1967) titled On the Loose, by Terry and Renny Russell.  These brothers took the ultimate trip of self-discovery around the Sierras and western United States in 1964.  Despite the fact the resulting book looks very 60s and "peace, love, dove" in nature, it remains a treasure and an environmental treatise of its time.  Terry died as a result of a rafting accident in June 1965, shortly after bringing the manuscript to the Sierra Club offices.

One of the wonderful features of the book is the use of quotations from a wide variety of sources, and the one bit that has resonated with me throughout the years is "After the first Artist, only the copyist."  This may well be paraphrased from a number of sources (the Bible included) but like the spontaneously generated flatbread, the quote is universally infinite in its interpretation.

I admit it.  As a photographer, I am a copyist.  In response to a comment and request (thank you, TTT), I am including several of my most recent "copies" in today's blog.  I absolutely love the way sculptor Craig Dan Goseyun has created action in his Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer.

On the verso of the On the Loose title page is the statement "The photographs in this book are of the lowest fidelity obtainable.  They are as far from the photographer's vision as cheap cameras, mediocre film, and drugstore processing could make them."  

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image