14. Focus

I broke two cameras in my life and both of them were in Zion National Park. This image was taken with one of those broken cameras when the lens mechanism no longer focused. I started shooting images with its new limitations. It was challenge to photograph lacking one of the key elements in photography - focus.

Many photographers would scoff at the idea of a blurry photograph, but I have always loved them. They remind me of a distance memory...or reaching for something distant in your mind.  The image never clear no matter how hard you work.

The blurry image was influenced by a substitute high school photography teacher. My regular teacher,  took a leave to participate in the Great Peace March (now I am really dating myself). A young artist, straight out of graduate school was hired to fill in for a month. Her work at that time, had little to do with photography. She showed us self portraits of words painted on her body and I honestly never understood it. None-the-less she challenged me to consider not only what was in the photograph, but what was also communicated to the viewer outside of the photograph. Mr. O'malley came home and she moved on but the influence stayed.

Eventually our paths crossed again. Both of us had further developed our work. Some 6 years later, Uta Barth had become a rock star of the art world. She is known as the photographer with the blurry photographs and one who continues to challenge the conventions of photography.

Uta Barth