Auspicious Openings
Auspicious Openings originally started out as a collection
of possible directions to motivate beginning photography
students who were at an impasse in thinking for themselves.
Each card is simply a starting point for contemplation about
why we make photographs, and how we might make better
ones. Individually, they fragment a pattern of thinking; shreds
of a single image - itself a piece of an unphotographable whole.
In 1979 I came across the third edition of Brian Eno and Peter
Schmidt’s Oblique Strategies. The card "always first steps"
therein sums up the freshness and openness of inquiry a
persistent beginner maintains in both their work and life. Zen
master Shunyryu Suzuki called it "beginner’s mind." I offer
this deck as both an homage to those early influences in my
evolution as an artist, and as a continuing endeavor to develop
my own voice; especially in the hope that it will be of some
benefit for others. However, please be cautious of my questions
and advice. Make your own cards someday.
2003, Santa Monica