Eyes Wide Shut

    It seems that whenever my photography takes a turn for what some have called the dark side, I begin to receive emails and messages by those whom never see what I'm showing in my photographs. Honestly I think that the masses today lack the conscience and imagination to see what I see. Riding on the subway it becomes blatantly obvious that the masses are a sleep in their digital realms. Their eyes might be open but their minds are fast asleep. Besides, how much would you see if your only real experience on the subway is riding it at the same time, form the same station, back and forth to work? Not much, nada, nothing, zilch.

    Another strange statement by those questioning my photos is that when searching the internet, the photos by others don't depict what's in mine. First of all, search engines and social media can provide the masses with a shortcut to finding new and exciting things, but these are just an illusion. They're watered down, curated, results from algorithms that people can't comprehend, including those that created them. Second, I do not have a prop department, nor a cast of actors ready to play a role when I scream action when I can barely afford to ride the subway. What you see in my photographs is playing out right in front me, usually not more than five feet away.

    Propaganda too can play a big roll in this illusion. For example. The Mayor of Philadelphia and her propaganda machine was recently on the news riding the Market Street Line with a big smile on her face, while being surrounded by security, staff and the media in a nice clean train car. No unwashed homeless, no junkies and their needles, no odor of death by the super junkies on the drug "Tranq" which rots your flesh. Now, if the Mayor decided to ride the subway with me for an hour or two, she would go screaming all the way back to her office in City Hall. I guarantee it !

   You can not be fooled into an illusion when you're constantly observing.