Laundry Day on the Road (1976) by Dave Nohl

While archiving negatives and digital captures I came upon a single strip of 35mm color negatives taken by my brother-in-law. It was in rough condition with torn sprocket holes and multiple scratches including one long film advance scratch running horizontally through the length of the negative. After some digital restoration the picture of a road trip taken by my husband and his brother emerged. For me, the multiple items contained within the Wash-O-Mat’s space, from product branding of beverages and laundry soaps to the reflections of the street including the hearse and the anonymous person off to the right elevates this photo from snapshot to fine art. It has the feel of a Martin Parr or a daytime version of a Hopper painting. It’s unusual for me to post something I didn’t photograph. I hope you like this as much as I do.

The rebound of winter weather is a reminder the change of seasons can be a slow turn. A longing for warmer temperatures is soothed by reading poet JoEllen Kwiatek’s Eleven Days Before Spring. Recipient of a Pushcart Prize and winner of the 2014 Iowa Poetry Prize for Study for Necessity, JoEllen graciously shed her quiet reserve to sit for this cover photo in 2000.

A found sock with a holiday feel.

Pliny the Elder, a Roman author and naturalist, believed the full moon moistened the brain with nocturnal dew increasing the risk of madness. Although overall statistics reveal no significant saturation of human calamity during a full moon, it does seem to nourish the creative self.

This digital capture was taken while scouting locations along the Lake Michigan shore in preparation for the last Super Moon of the year. As luck would have it, a freighter passed by during this rehearsal.

HDR digital capture of Eco the Raccoon strolling on the Wishing Bridge strung with holiday lights.

Volunteering to document the Maywood Environmental Park‘s Wishing For Winter event gave me the opportunity to practice night photography.

This reclusive, gentle giant emerged from seclusion to become the latest subject for my Reconstructed Portraiture project. Two separate 16×120 B&W portraits of retired wrestler, Paco Libre, were custom printed in my darkroom then hand cut and woven together to form one portrait. Since the process alters the face, the man behind the mask is still a mystery to those who view the finished piece, which has already sold.

Guest in my studio is Susan Prater, a retired nurse, former belly dancer, and subject of a B&W Reconstructed Portrait weave piece currently exhibiting in the Thelma-Sadoff Center for the Arts in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Here Susan demonstrates her dancing skills.

This eagle feather appears on the cover of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) latest publication, Indigenous Notions of Ownership and Libraries, Archives and Museums. My thanks to editors Camille Callison, Loriene Roy, and Gretchen Alice LeCheminant for selecting my photograph.

There are those who by profession, hobby, or faith, wear material to cover or protect their heads. Through casual observance we are unable to see the person under the guise. The Reconstructed Portraiture series is an exercise in providing a glimpse of who lies beneath by combining two vernacular portraits with and without the head covering. The act of hand cutting and weaving the two black and white photographic prints form a pixelated double exposure that will inevitably alter the face.