Light Poem No.3 - Touchless Carwash

"The camera is an instrument that teaches
people how to see without a camera."
Dorothea Lange,
Depression-era photographer

One quite cold night in January I chose to fill my tank at a gas station due to its local ownership, rather than a competitor's lower price.

One and a half inches of ice clung to the interior of the gas station's car wash windows, rendering them translucent instead of transparent. I found art in the resulting abstract shadows of the machinery making repeated passes as it cleaned a car.

You will hear the horn beeps of another patron, unhappy that my filming position slowed his exit.


I find that when I alter my routine, I see more.

I am also finding that making videos helps me be more attuned to sights and sounds, more attuned to sequence and motion. And, more fixed in the present moment of experience. A good place for any creator to be.

How do you think Ms. Lange would have approached video?

© 2010 John Nordell

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