They say if you take photos of things you love, you will take good photos. More than anything, I seek to capture the emotion, light and beauty of the world in my photography. For much of my writing life, I thought my job was to tell the truth, to capture the sometimes harsh reality of the world. As modern media and neurotic medicine and government and law – institutions increasingly centered on promoting fear and alarm for profit or gain – my own notion of my role has changed. The human view of the world has darkened, perhaps more than the world has.

I see my job – the job of the contemporary writer and artist perhaps – to make sense of the color and imagery of the world and remind people that there is much beauty and light and promise around us.

Flowers and animals don’t have to take tests and pills, have health care or IRA’s, call customer service, remember their passwords,  or vote for lunatics. In my series of photos of Maria and Rocky or Maria and the donkeys – Maria and Fran – I see the emotion in animals and in people, and the way in which they communicate with one another. Maria has the gift of opening people up. So does Simon. Both have opened me up, and I see in these photographs to show that process. They are clearly talking to one another – not in our language, but in the emotions of each.

Maria does not put words into Simon’s mouth, does not project her own human values onto him. She simply expresses her joy of life and love for him, and he reflects the the same thing back to her. How lucky I am to have the tools to try and capture this beautiful thing. My work.