Not everything is a rerun this month–oh no, no. And today we are pleased to present another stunning collection of photographs taken by Christopher J Ananias. “CJA”–as I like to refer to him, has a keen eye for words and the world–Leila
Photo Gallery by Christopher J Ananias
Saragun Springs 
Christopher
These are remarkable, but especially, for me, the lone Bird in silver flight. Could be an agent of evil or s/he spied an unattended pizza.
Wonderful photos
Leila
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Hi Leila
I thought the bird was invoking something too, but yes it might be on a pizza quest, lol.
Thanks
Christopher
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Hi Christopher
A quest is a quest! A lovely picture regardless.
Leila
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Super images. Those VW buses are pretty well used – I’ll bet they were on their way to be refurbished. The corvid in flight is excellent. If you tol dme he wasn’t a bird but some other magical being I could be convinced. – dd
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The VW’s were in a sort of caravan that went by and I snapped a couple of shots. The bird kind of reminded me of “The Wizard of Oz.” When Dorothy and Toto got caught in the twister. Thanks!
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Christopher
What amazing, resonant and uncanny photos! These really knocked me for a loop in the best of ways.
Woke up late this morning (after going to sleep late in the night). Still busy sucking down the first cup of coffee. Back soon with more comments…
Dale
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Hi Dale
Glad you liked these. Coffee is good stuff!
CJA
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CJA
That first picture is shocking: shocking in the best of electrical, light-bulb ways, like a hit of bad acid that jolts the viewer with mystery. It’s like a moment in a Stephen King story. Or like a still from a David Lynch movie. Or like a memory from an acid flashback. Or like a dream, a nightmare that suddenly turns beautiful. It shocks and is disorienting as some of the greatest art of all time is. Then the viewer adjusts and becomes fascinated by the strangeness, the liveliness, the alertness, the frozen motion of the picture. The contrast between light and dark amazes. This is a brilliant photo at all levels! Brilliant enough to be the cover of a book containing your short stories or poems or photographs.
DWB
PS
Interviewer: Do you have any advice for your fans?
Bob Dylan: Always carry a lightbulb.
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DWB
Wow glad the picture resonated! I got that on my deer cam. I was outside where we feed the animals, and I have this light on my stocking cap. It struck me like an inhuman AI man.
Great comments about SK and D. Lynch! I could see how they might be involved in a shot like this. The deer cam brings out a starkness that I like.
“Always carry a lightbulb.” That’s a classic!
Thanks!
CJA
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PS CJA
I forgot to mention the HUMOR of the first picture. When someone is capable of making a photograph that clearly communicates a sense of humor like this one does, you know they’re a REAL photographer, not a vain, rank amateur.
D
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DWB
I actually staged that shot. I saw a few on my deer cam that I deleted and regretted it. I thought, I could have used that Saragun Springs. So I posed for the deer cam.
Glad the humor came through, lol
Thank you!
CJA
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CJA
What a brilliant bird photo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is that a crow or a raven? (Or something else).
This pic surely does double duty.
It’s a brilliant, awesome, swooping, vast, inspiring nature photo.
And it has a sense of “otherness,” a feeling of symbolic rightness and meanings behind the scene.
It conjures up a feeling of the UNSEEN through what is seen.
Again, the mark of a real photographer is here!
DWB
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DWB
I suspect it’s a crow. Raven’s are rare in Indiana– they sometimes frequent the Indiana Dunes. Full disclosure. I just Googled that.
“And it has a sense of “otherness,” a feeling of symbolic rightness and meanings behind the scene.” Great way to describe it! It does seem to be on a mission.
Thanks!
Christopher
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CJA
The placement of the framed drawing in a pile of leaves against a tree is brilliant staging.
The drawing itself really catches the reader’s eye.
And it so clearly seems to belong where it is, because of its subject matter.
The drawing is of a time when people lived so much closer to nature it’s hard to believe.
The history of the Midwest is contained in this picture!!!!!! (And the history of the Midwest is the history of the USA.)
DWB
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DWB
I thought you might like that picture! We saw that at Pottawatomie Park in North Central Indiana.
Someone put that picture right out in nature against a tree. It reminded me of the ancients and more recent Indians that lived here for over 6000 years in peace before the whites came.
Thanks!
CJA
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CJA
The fourth picture puts me in mind of one of my favorite short story writers of all time, William Gay of Tennessee.
He was a kind of modern-day American Rasputin holy man hippie figure who lived in rural Tennessee with his artistic, hippie family.
The Midwest, both urban, rural, and small town, has a lot of people who are artistic outlier figures, those who don’t join the herd even though they do what they have to do to get by.
The mystique of the American back roads is captured in this picture. It reminds us that they still exist, which they very much do.
DWB
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DWB
William Gay, I’ll have to check out his writing. Love those old hippy vans. Reminds me of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, singing “Woodstock.”
Yes the back roads are still there and I think America is too…
CJA
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CJA
The last picture in this series reminds me of the kind of place I spend a lot of time in, except I do it in Illinois (usually), instead of Indiana.
But as we’ve talked about before, I’ve spent a lot of time in Indiana.
The Dunes, Turkey Run, Notre Dame, Bloomington, and I saw The Who in Indianapolis in the early 1980s, one of the greatest rock concerts I’ve ever seen.
I also saw RAY CHARLES live in Indiana. (A holy experience.)
Your sense of place is fantastic AND important and this pic captures it.
DWB
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DWB
I was hoping this picture might invoke nature. I’ve been to Turkey Run a few times wow that’s and incredible place. So cool you have been there and where you go in Illinois. Illinois is such a great state!
So cool about The Who! Daltrey and Townsend are absolute wild men on stage! We saw them at the 2010 Superbowl.
Ray Charles that’s pretty great too!
CJA
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CJA
Thanks for sending your poem to SSs. I love the attitude contained within it. Instantaneous acceptance of course!!!!!!! We’re ready for more any time you are.
DWB
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DWB
Thanks for accepting it!
CJA
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“A picture is a poem without words.” – Horace
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