Free Verse Photography
Photographs by Mark Mitchell
Art Around the Fox at Town House Café
St. Charles, Illinois
April 26, 2002 - May 31, 2002

One tenet of free verse is that the style or form of the poem needs to adapt to what the poem is expressing. Each poem requires its own unique set of rules. This pattern seems present in these photographs. Maybe such an approach happens automatically when your engagement with photography is at the level of play. Which is certainly the case here. Sometimes this approach gets labeled "experimental." But that word has too much intention in it. You experiment until you can prove something or make a finished product. Well, what is there to prove? None of these photographs are finished; they're more beginnings than endings. Discoveries. Adventures in delight. There's so much to experience, so many secrets that are waiting to be whispered in your ear. I hope that this process of discovery and play doesn't end with me. The titles and descriptions given below are just a beginning point, not a definition. Images have a way of calling forward memories or experiences, of insinuating just what we need to see or hear. Where you take this interaction is up to you.

Here's one example of how events can unfold in making a photograph like "Under the Table." It began in a very familiar place for me, Town House Café. How many meals have I shared with family and friends around this table? The place was empty and I was waiting for Heidi to get off work. I had my camera and was noticing the slant of light off that smooth table surface. For some time I had been playing with shooting things out of focus. Just a game to be able to stare at something without there being any focus or with little depth of field. It didn't take long to compose. Composition is faith in the haphazard having some kind of release in it, some joy or recognition. So, it only took a minute to happen.

I forgot about the picture until I read that the photographer, Uta Barth, had done an entire show of photos of the gallery rooms themselves. That sounded interesting and then I remembered this one and printed it up. I loved the reflections, texture and tone of that table top. I can ignore the rest of the image and just look at that surface forever. But without the room, without knowing that this is a table by a window, well, I'm glad the picture keeps all of that. Who knows why I've always loved empty tables—maybe from playing as a child under our dining room table or from that feeling after the company has gone. It seems important that company was there but also now to have a chance to ponder the visit, to let conversations unwind in the fresh quiet.

Contact Information: Tel: (630) 584-7723, Email: mark@newsfromnowhere.com