Another very early photograph. Although not monumental, I still enjoy it. And as it turns out, it made it something of a significant consequence, as it foreshadowed an interest and theme that would develop and continues stay with me … my infatuation with doorways and windows. In fact, making these photographs has been a lifelong project whose work can be found in my “Entrances” Gallery.

I can pretty much remember the experience. As a teenager, I liked driving around the country and scattered small towns nearby when I wasn’t in school, working, playing cards and otherwise goofing off with friends, or trying to see my girlfriend and future wife.   Cream white colored ’64 Saab, with a four speed on the floor. The previous year I had bought my first car, a blue semi rusted ’63 Saab with a two stroke engine and a four speed on the column. When it ran right I loved it. Trouble was that it didn’t run right that often, hence the ’64. I liked the new one well enough, but it had an interesting quirk. The floor was cracked … turns out dangerously so … so when I drove in the rain or snow I had to wear rubbers or boots to keep my feet from getting wet! Anyway it was what I could afford so it had to do the job. It did that day, and along with either my Pentax Spotmatic or Nikkormat, with a 50mm lens, it enabled me to get the job done!

It’s funny how certain pictures can influence and foretell other work to come, even though you may not have consciously thought about it in a certain way when they were first made. They just do and it isn’t until you go back to look and say yes that was something significant … to me. In this case, so much so that not only do these entrances and the mysteries of what may be behind them still catch my eye and imagination whenever I chance upon them.  Also enough that I eventually felt compelled to express my thoughts about it and include these words with the pictures themselves.

Here is what I said. “Doorways have always fascinated artists, and they have always intrigued me. What do they represent and what are the mysteries hidden behind them?

To me the doorway is the portal to all that lay beyond it and the centerpiece to what surrounds it.  Or it may be an abstract design, depending upon the way I choose to stare at it.

All things seem to flow from the statement the doorway makes.  I have even seen neat imaginatively designed houses where the entire frontispiece seems to act as an entranceway leading to the door itself!  But such uniquely designed structures are not found in the ever-growing amount of cookie cutter homes and increasingly homogenized subdivisions that is what America is becoming.

I was probably meant to live in the Forties, or Fifties, when there was character in our architecture and charm in our surroundings.  Maybe that’s why I am attracted to the old buildings and continue to seek out the interesting urban neighborhoods and small towns.

Sometimes doors are tightly shut to hermetically seal the inhabitants in from the outside world.  They can often see what is outside, but depending on their interest, remain hidden to the outside world.  Sometimes doors are left slightly ajar, leaving it to the passerby to determine whether the quarters behind it are inhabited or abandoned.

Once in a while a door is left open so that all can see beyond the passageway.  Of course in today’s society this doesn’t happen too often.  Gone are the trusting days of my youth when our doors were almost always kept open to let the sun shine in so the foyer could be made brighter … and even left unlocked during the night.

Then there are the people located in or near the doorways.  Who are they?  Are they happy or sad, proud or defeated?  What are they doing, thinking and hoping for?  Why are they there — to see or be seen?

Are they hoping to be in my picture?”

Stay well,

Michael