westcoastphotomontage: black and white darkroom

'Desert Trip'

On Amazon:

http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

This includes an image i have recently posted, titled 'Desert Time'.

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:

Previews of all at:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net

And if you want to see even more:

Sunday, December 31, 2017

Happy New Year!

I hope i always keep this saying, or prayer as it is called, close to heart.

The Serenity Prayer is the common name for a prayer written by the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971). The best-known form is:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer

Hope you enjoy my Year End portfolio!

Who knows what the future will bring.

Let's go there anyway, we have no choice, do we?

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Driftwood Skeleton

'Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, we all fall down".

Or become driftwood, & after that, wandering molecules looking for a new home.

Jim Morrison put it more bluntly: 'No one here gets out alive'.

After many years of making darkroom photomontage (since the late 80's), and not being able to get arrested for it except for a few appearances in competitive group shows, and some assignment illustrations in various magazines ....I am designing & publishing books I make at Blurb with 'Bookify' - two of them are on Amazon, one is at Blurb.

TN in: BB stuff 2/BB_Books All info

'California Beach Trip':

On Amazon:

'Desert Trip'

On Amazon:

http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:

Previews of all at:

Monday, September 4, 2017

Beach Mirage

I did this darkroom print really quickly, simply - wasn't much impressed w/ the result immediately, but it has grown on me. Who is this huge figure in the distance, coming thru a misty tunnel?

Is this the begining of a zombie apocalypse movie?

Or something more benevolent?

Above, digital coloring

The source image for this, made at Ocean Beach, SF, CA., was on this roll/film.

The place is a magnet for anyone looking for an enlightening refreshing experience without having to go very far at all. I lived in SF from '92-2001, i spent many a dollar on bus fare going to and fro. That's all it took, a buck, RT ticket.

At the west side of town, it extends south for miles. It's landmark structure - Cliff House - has undergone numerous renovations. The Sutro Baths was a huge vault of a place, that took in ocean water in a controlled way for a frothy cold bath. Above both of those, Sutro Gardens. Adolf Sutro liked to name places after himself. The ruins of the Bath House still take in hi-tide seawater, a path north leads to several viewpoints, and trails lead down treacherous land to rocky beaches.

The same set-up - the glassy surface of wet sand - made for a roll or two of the waves, rippling back and forth against each other, very late in the day. It became the cover image for one of my books.

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Hope you're enjoying the sand - there's plenty left - Stop in again!

Monday, October 3, 2016

Secrets

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks or so, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical.

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

Also check out my self-published books:

Desert Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

California Beach Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

Seeking The Vibe: http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Previews of all at:

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This one's about a secret, hidden in the sky, the clouds, the ether. You can just barely make it out, the door is locked... or is it? And if you turn the handle and open it, what lies beyond? Are you ready for that? It might be nice.... or maybe not exactly nice, but mysterious and perhaps inscrutable. Here's what it might look like:

Ready or not, here you go.

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Take a seat...

Take a seat on an abandoned decrepit chair on the beach.

In a surreally oversized driftwood shelter. Let your thoughts wander.

Watch the fading sunset light. Did i mention your cell phone should be turned off?

Well, now i have.

Stop. Sit. Think. Pay attention to the real world.

The chair, the driftwood, the sunset.

After many years of making darkroom photomontage ( since the late 80's),

and not being able to get arrested for it

except for a few appearances in competitive group shows,

and some assignment illustrations in various magazines

....I am designing & publishing books I make at Blurb with 'Bookify'

- two of them are on Amazon, one is at Blurb.

'California Beach Trip':

On Amazon:

'Desert Trip'

On Amazon:

http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:

Previews of all at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_sand

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Dunes Music

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical.

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

Also check out my self-published books:

Desert Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

California Beach Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

Do you think perhaps artists might be able to make images that say something about the world that they are not even aware of? Do we somehow manage to channel a deeper source?

Far be it for me to claim such, but...I printed this over 20 years ago, for 2 reasons:

1 - A walk on the beach is full of all kinds of music, the surf, the waves, the wind, the sand - they all sing a song, carry a tune of sorts.

2 - The organ pipes blended nicely into the columns of eroded sand.

I printed this image long before i heard about 'singing sands'.

"Singing sand dunes, an example of the phenomenon of singing sand, produce a sound described as roaring, booming, squeaking, or the "Song of Dunes". This is a natural sound phenomenon of up to 105 decibels, lasting as long as several minutes, that occurs in about 35 desert locations around the world. The sound is similar to a loud low-pitch rumble. It emanates from crescent-shaped dunes, or barchans. The sound emission accompanies a slumping or avalanching movement of sand, usually triggered by wind passing over the dune or by someone walking near the crest."

----------------------------

"At roughly 30 locations around the world, sand dunes seem to sing, producing haunting and baffling sounds. Marco Polo noticed the phenomenon in the Gobi Desert. Ancient travelers have heard it in the Sahara. Even Charles Darwin puzzled over it in the Chilean desert. For centuries, no one was able to explain why it happens. Now, engineers Melany Hunt and Christopher Brennen of the California Institute of Technology are on the case. Their theory is that the booming sand dunes act like enormous musical instruments."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/booming-sands.html

http://www.livescience.com/24268-singing-sands.html

Hhmmmm... the world is a pretty interesting place, ain't it?

let's hope we don't destroy it all too soon.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Window to soul

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical.

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

The title is actually multiple choice:

• Window to soul

• Window to your soul

• Window to a soul

These might seem to be similar but if you think about it, they are not.

Read closely, and think.

This one blew in on the west wind, dropped into my head one night in a dream.

The window, shot somewhere in the Mojave, an old abandoned building.

The cloud, shot from my 12th Ave SF rooftop/5th floor deck, many years ago.

The synchronicity, how & why these two came together? i don't know where it comes from, it just arrives, i am happy for that. Perhaps the window is letting this strange cloud into your vision for a reason? Does the window have some strange mystical properties? Your guess is as good as mine, it can mean whatever you think it may mean, photos are like that, any art is like that, it's all in the eye of the beholder.

I did two versions, one in the darkroom (above), another as a photoshop sketch (below), low res, but a rather interesting version, colored w/ pencils.

Check out my self-published books:

Desert Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

California Beach Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

'Seeking the vibe' is still working it's way thru Amazon's system - it'll be there soon... i hope.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Stories to be told

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical.

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

So here's this old battered sand-blasted book, lying in the sand at the beach. Are there stories here? Wisdom to be uncovered? You'll never know until you try and turn these pages... and they may crumble in your hand. The rocks/landscape the book leans against also tell stories, but they are much much longer ones - geology is about *long time*, millions of years.

*Read whatever you can*, no matter how it comes your way. You'll be glad you did.

Here's one last word or two, thanks to Rumi:

Oh, you don't know who Rumi was??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi

“Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing

and rightdoing there is a field.

I'll meet you there.

“What you seek is seeking you.”

“Dance, when you're broken open.

Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.

Dance in the middle of the fighting.

Dance in your blood.

Dance when you're perfectly free.”

“Forget safety.

Live where you fear to live.

Destroy your reputation.

Be notorious.”

“Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames”

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing

and rightdoing there is a field.

I'll meet you there".

If you like the image above, it's in a book i have self published, available on Amazon:
Desert Trip:

http://www.hcn.org/articles/a-call-for-an-end-to-cairns-leave-the-stones-alone

Enough said / Fini.

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Vibration

Vibration

So what is holding this mysterious stack of stones above the water?

Are they vibrating in some way, to stay afloat??

Or is the vibration keeping them afloat?

I am no scientist, but there are many paradoxes in the world.

Our bodies seem solid enough, but they are 60 % water.

(check me on this one, the percentage might be higher!)

To quote wikipedia:

"The vast majority of cells in the human body are not human at all; rather they are of bacteria, archaea, and methanogens such as Methanobrevibacter smithii. The largest proportion of these form the gut flora."

And all these molecules that make all this up?

Neutrons, protons and whatever else, all spinning around.......

We aren't what we seem to be. (What else is?)

On the topic of stacking stones?

(I shot this many years ago on, on Ocean Beach, SF CA, the south end)

And someone at High Country News has a comment:

My advice to this writer? - humans have been altering the planet since we crawled out of a cave.

It ain't gonna stop, ever. " 'Til death do us part". A few stones stacked isn't much to get excited about.

Grow up, get over it.

If you like my photomontage work?

Check out the books i have published, put up on Amazon:

'California beach trip' -

and:

'Desert Trip'

Thanks for tuning in - I'll be back, for sure.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Bones

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical.

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

A driftwood sculpture in the sand. You are looking in a mirror of sorts - this is you, me, us all.

Composed of haphazard pieces, aren't we all?

A man, a woman, some warm moments, & nine months later, here you are.

Some years later (hopefully many) there you go.

"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, we all fall down."

Between the beginning and the end? ...try to act well, be a credit, not a deficit, to this human endeavor.

It's a huge and merciless universe, we may well mean nothing.

But if we do mean anything?

'Be part of the solution, not part of the problem' as the old 60's saying goes.

Is anyone watching? Is there a 'god'?

I think not, but just in case i am wrong?....

I'd prefer to do things right, such as i know 'right' to be.

Not just because it'll be better for me then, but because it makes me feel better now.

Immediate gratification, you ask?

No, not really. Only sort of.

If you like this image, you should check out my recently published book:

There's a 'see inside the book' preview so you can check it out a bit before you reach for that credit card.

Friday, April 1, 2016

Temporary homes

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical.

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

Everything in the image is very short lived.

The ripples in the sand? Revised by the next tide.

The holes in the rock in the upper left?

Made by mollusks, with a spiral pattern of razor sharp blades on their shell.

They burrow in a clay-like rock, live for a while, then die, and leave their 'home' behind.

In the center, a shark egg casing. Momma gives this birth, baby lives here a short while, then it splits open, baby is free, and on it's own, the casing discarded.

At the the right, a 'by the wind sailor' - a gelatinous and almost transparent thing that usually floats out on the open ocean, it's sail is pushed by the wind. Once in a while, the wind and tides change, and masses of them are thrown onto the shore, making one very slippery mess to walk on.

Not just a temporary home, but a temporary life.

Everything is temporary...

This image is included in a book i did that's now for sale on Amazon, titled 'California Beach Trip". I'm quite proud of it - I got an Amazon sellers acct., so there is a 'see inside the book' link so you can taste the rest of the book, half a dozen images.