Twice upon a time, in that veritable Galaxy far-far away, I was (am) a survivor. With the support of my wife, C, my son, D, my best bud J, and my mom, G, and a supporting cast of family and friends, surprisingly even more supportive than the folks of Bedford Falls were to good ol’ George Bailey, I have held the evil C (our modern day Darth Vader) at bay. Along the way, one esophagus fell by the wayside, one tummy was pulled up and I had drugs up the wazoo! (Funny how that works, I can now have tons of different drugs. Legally. And none of them are fun…) There were multiple chemo sessions with many side effects, and yet, I not only survive, I live on!

The one good thing to come out of the battles (ummm…. besides life, of course) was that my muse arose behind me, stronger than ever before! As I recovered from the first debilitating battle, I had the help of my good friend and massage therapist/herbalist Sensei Reggie, and we spoke of creating a website for him during my sessions. With that in mind, I decided to go back to school (Hunter College) for a web design certificate. One of the requirements of the curriculum was a pair of Photoshop courses. I questioned the head of the program about that ‘cause, y’know, ummmm, I’ve been using PS since 1993, and did I really *Really* need to take the beginner course??? He said to try it for a week and then decide, because there were many changes. I did. He was right. And 2 weeks into the course, during a photo assignment, my muse arose from the dead and started hitting me on the head: “Shoot this! Shoot that! Change your perspective!” As I type this, she is still there banging away… ouch…

It all comes down to this:

I am an artist. I am also a baseball fan. I am a Yankees fan. I am a Mets fan. I am not schizophrenic. I think.

Light and darkness, highlights and shadows have intrigued me since childhood.

I began with my mom’s Brownie camera and through the years shot with Polaroids, Instamatics, 35mm rangefinders, SLRs, medium format cameras, minimal point and shoot digital cameras, infrared cameras, and, most recently, various DSLRs. My lenses have ranged from the extremes of macro to very long lenses to fisheye. All in an effort to capture what was in my mind’s eye or to create new visions.

Today is the culmination of all my yesterdays, and tomorrow is that of all my todays.

I am inspired by my imagination and the works I’ve seen and loved. I make no claims to originality, yet I make no effort to imitate. I try to see things around me and imagine how they might look if I did this… or that… or…

So, welcome to the marcmandy.photos blog. I am beginning a new journey here and hope you can join me and we can enjoy it together.

To get started, simply click on "Next" above or click right here and then click on post number 2- "Tasting 1-2-3" and continue from there! 

Enjoy!

marc