Looking at the Overlooked
March 19, 2023
A show of my photographs, called Looking at the Overlooked, went up Friday in our Community Center. Ten days ago Lynn Wohlers (bluebrightly) posted The Call of the Quotidian on a similar theme. If you haven’t already, you might want to check it out; her narrative is worth the trip, let alone her photographs. This is what’s in my show.
1 I titled this photo Rennie’s Flowers because it reminded me of work by the artist Rennie MacIntosh. When I tried to find an image of his work featuring flowers something like these rusty paint blisters (I don’t think a term to describe these things exists), I couldn’t find one. The closest I could come is this Wikipedia entry. It shows windows and chairs that feature a graphic element bunched at the top and a long line beneath. It’s okay if you don’t see Rennie MacIntosh art in my photograph, which shows an old propane tank in a marine junk yard in Placida, Florida. I’m just happy that I could devise a title for this photo at all. Unlike Mic. (Landscapes and Other Abstractions), who is a wiz at it, I find titling works the hardest part of the process.
2 You may have seen this and many of the other photographs in the show on this blog. I took it at my friend’s farmhouse in Pennsylvania. It has the obvious title of Clothes Rack with Golf Ball.
3 This is another photograph taken at the farmhouse. Title: The Hidden Dormer.
4 The Bathtub is the third photo from the farmhouse that I put in the show.
5 As you may have noticed, I like to hang around my community’s groundskeepers’ yard. That’s where I found this spiral of fencing. The photo is titled Spiral.
6 The unusual shade of the green in this drying leaf drew my attention. Title: The Leaf on Buttonbush Bridge.
7 My neighbors probably prefer their hostas green, but I don’t. This is The Morgan Hostas.
8 This boat was resting in a open area pretty far from the water in Cortez, Florida. Title: Abandoned in Cortez 2.
9 This and the following two photographs were also taken in Cortez. This boat was in a boatyard, awaiting refurbishing. This is Dry Docked 1.
10 This boat was about to be dismantled. I’m so glad I got there before the destruction began. This is Dry Docked 2.
11 This is Dry Docked 3.
12 I showed this dumpster photograph in a link on my last blog post. It acquired the title Loading-Dock Dumpster for the show.
13 The loading-dock dumpster was in my neighborhood; this one was in Sarasota. Title: Dumpster 61367.
14 David and I were out on an anniversary ride (it’s the way we celebrate our anniversaries) when he spotted an old grain elevator. “Isn’t that the kind of thing you like to photograph?” he asked. Sure thing. Title: Ruffled.
15 I was visiting a friend in Asheville, North Carolina, and came across a paper-recycling yard. I was in heaven; there were aisles and aisles of cardboard bales. Title: Recycling 1.
16 Recycling 2
17 Recycling 3
18 I did some recycling of my own for this new show. This photograph and the next five are from a 2015 show I had at the Ginko Gallery in Oberlin. All depict films of Leptothrix discophora and are untitled.
19
20
21
22
23
24 Dumpster Floor
Romancing Reality 
Congratulations on your show. It must have been hard to choose which of your many pictures to display. You put together a good and varied collection. Who could resist the colors in #9, 10, and 24? And of course it wouldn’t be a show of yours without some Leptothrix discophora images.
I found several websites that refer to paint blisters and one that calls them paint scabs. References to peeling paint occur as well but I don’t know if anyone uses the noun phrase “paint peels.”
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March 19, 2023 at 9:27 PM
Thanks, Steve. Since this show was originally supposed to go up three or four years ago, I had a long time to think about what I wanted to include. My choices changed several times over those years. When I hit on a title for the show, it made making the selections easier. Okay, burst paint blisters they are.
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March 20, 2023 at 11:42 AM
Congratulations on the show, Linda. Fantastic set of photos! Leptothrix discophora shots are outstanding. #15, #16 and #17 are wonderful. Those types of shots take a special vision. Outstanding!
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March 19, 2023 at 10:03 PM
Thank you, Ken. I added #15, #16, and #17 after I thought I had printed all the ones I wanted. I’m so glad I included those three at the last minute. The prints turned out really nice. I can’t say that for #24, unfortunately. The part that looks yellow on the screen is just another shade of orange in the print. Still, it was one of my favorite dumpster photos, so I left it in.
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March 19, 2023 at 10:29 PM
What a lovely way to reconnect with you and your ongoing work. It was truly a treat to find you in my email. I did enjoy the other photographer’s comments but I much prefer your photos. Glad you continue to be nourished by your passion.
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March 20, 2023 at 12:20 AM
Thank you, Leslie. Art is sustaining, isn’t it.
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March 20, 2023 at 10:02 AM
I love this series Linda, especially 8, 12 and 21 and of course the recycling pictures.
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March 20, 2023 at 4:36 AM
Thank you, Jag. I think I need to go back and take another look at all the photos I took in that recycling yard. I’ll bet that there are more in there worth working with.
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March 20, 2023 at 10:07 AM
A vibrant series of photographs. Thank you.
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March 20, 2023 at 8:41 AM
Thank you, Caroline.
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March 20, 2023 at 10:59 AM
Congratulations on the show! I wish I lived closer to see these in person. I hope you will consider maybe posting some photos of the venue. The recycling series is new to me – I must have missed them if you posted before. As usual, your eye for finding interesting patterns is unmatched!
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March 20, 2023 at 10:31 AM
Thank you, Mark. I haven’t taken installation shots yet, but I can email you some when I do. I just now checked and see that I posted nine paper-recycling photos between May 20 and 28, 2015, including the three I printed for the show. You can find them in the archives section, below.
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March 20, 2023 at 11:41 AM
Excellent collection of photographs. I love #9 in particular, but they’re all wonderful. Great that you get to show them together in a physical appearance, instead of just electronic bits & bytes. Prints are a different world. I’m very happy for you.
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March 20, 2023 at 8:53 PM
Thank you, Alex. Yes, I love seeing all these photographs printed and living next to each other, and I love that I can walk about 10 minutes to see them. A print does have a different feeling from bits and bytes. It makes me even happier that you are happy for me.
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March 20, 2023 at 9:44 PM
This is a wonderful collection of your work, Linda. They must look great together in the gallery. I am really looking forward to seeing them there! I hope we can arrange for that.
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March 21, 2023 at 11:13 AM
Thank you, Mic. I really hope you can come out and see the show.
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March 21, 2023 at 11:58 AM
Congratulations on getting this together – what a lot of work! I can’t imagine doing this.
And I don’t even deserve to be mentioned in your company – these photos are so very good, Linda. I was so impressed when I opened the email the other day. I didn’t want to comment until I could spend time with the post.
The wisps of grass in the first photo add a lot to it – what an eye you have! 🙂 I believe I remember #2, which is so like a Cornell box – really perfect. And I love #4, too. Only you could photograph that scene with such care. I would even say reverence.
#6 is appealing, and #7 – the dried leaves – is stunning. #9 – #13 remind me of all the pleasure I’ve had over the years, looking at your dumpster photographs.
The cardboard series excited me the most this time, maybe because I haven’t seen those before – at least I don’t remember them. Wow, I love them! What a find, and how perfectly you framed & exposed each image. The “ruffled” grain elev. image goes perfectly with them; all are very fabric-like.
And then the Leptothrix series – your trademark (in my mind). Each one is a treasure.
I hope we’ll see more of you now that the show is up!
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March 23, 2023 at 8:49 PM
Thank you, Lynn. Yes, it was a lot of work, especially because I couldn’t get my printer to work. I had to borrow a friend’s, which is a recent iteration of my Epson 3880, so there was a minimal learning curve, at least. Now you know how I feel looking at your photos: that I don’t deserve to be mentioned in your company. A Cornell box! I wonder if my slight familiarity with his work made me see the possibilities in #2. I added the cardboard series after I thought I had finished choosing all the photos for the show. If you look in the archives (scroll down) for May 2015, you will see your comment on #15. You gave a like to #16, and commented on #17. So you are consistent. Isn’t is nice when we can discover something for the second time? Now that the show is up, I also hope to spend more time posting and viewing others’ posts.
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March 26, 2023 at 10:10 PM
Well, 2015 was a loooong time ago, right? Yes, discovering things the second time around happens a lot every spring when I look at flowers that only bloom for a short time and try to remember their names. I saw below that you’ve sold some prints – that’s really nice. I hope you’ll be getting over to the river before too long. 🙂
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March 29, 2023 at 1:52 PM
I am definitely looking forward to a river excursion soon. Wish you could come along.
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March 29, 2023 at 2:43 PM
Absolutely fantastic! Wonderful images.
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March 26, 2023 at 4:11 AM
Thank you, Jessica. I’m glad you like them.
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March 26, 2023 at 10:12 PM
Hope your show’s going well. I can easily imagine any of these images printed and 15-17 must look wonderful; they’re unique subjects.
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March 26, 2023 at 4:21 PM
Thanks, John. The show is going well; I’ve received favorable comments from many people who’ve seen it (and I’ve sold three prints). Numbers 15, 16, and 17 do look particularly good, I have to admit. I’m lucky: the gallery has great lighting, which shows all the prints at their best.
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March 26, 2023 at 10:22 PM
Your have such a great eye for interest in what for many is uninteresting and turn it into something very interesting. These remind me of a title that a friend used for his night time photography ebook..”Seeing the Unseen”. “Looking at the Overlooked” is an equally good title. Most wouldn’t even stop but you did and these are all so enjoyable, Linda! I hope for some great reviews and possibly news of a few folks seeing these as perfect for a wall or two.
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April 1, 2023 at 7:31 PM
Ah, good news! I just read your reply to John. Congratulations!
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April 1, 2023 at 7:32 PM
Thank you, Steve. I’m interested in what you say about turning something uninteresting into something very interesting. I wrote about this on Lynn’s (bluebrightly) Call of the Quotidian blog post. Lynn had shared something her partner said about the quotidian: “It’s ordinary until it isn’t.” I replied: “When we point at something, we make it special. The only way I see out of this weird contradiction is an invitation to, in a sense, pay it forward. We can urge our viewers to notice for themselves what is usually taken for granted but perhaps should or need not be.” Many of our viewers don’t need prodding, but I plan to do some urging when I give my artist talk Friday to members of my community. As for reviews, no, the venue is too small and out of the way to attract reviewers. But I have been enjoying greatly the comments from my neighbors. And the sales are now up to eight!
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April 2, 2023 at 2:24 PM
I’d think that at least a small local neighborhood or advertising paper, we have what are called “Town Reminders” and have local interest pieces along with the ads, might promote the show.
I always hope that something about my images piques someone’s interest or tells them a little something they were not aware of, either in words which are often in short supply in my posts or the picture information that is visual.
Best of luck with the time remaining for your show and more congratulations on the sales. Hope to hear there are more to come. I’d love to be able to walk along the walls and appreciate your work in person.
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April 3, 2023 at 5:23 AM
Re Overlooked: I forgot to tell you how fabulous your images were for the show. I knew exactly what you meant with Rennie’s Flowers! Lovely day today. I walked across town for some errands and it was warm! I had just shoved my fingerless gloves in my pockets, and taken off my hat, and was just unbuttoning my coat as I passed an older, dapper gentleman by the Yale Film Building. He was trying to shrug off his coat, too. When he saw me, he spread his arms in a cheery manner and declared emphatically, with some surprise, “Its spring!” I could not have agreed more!
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April 4, 2023 at 5:53 PM
Thanks, Kathy. I’m happy to know that you got the “Rennie’s Flowers” thing. Wasn’t sure anyone would. Glad to know you are enjoying spring. I think we’re going to have more of it, even in Ohio.
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April 4, 2023 at 8:54 PM