More Than a Rock, 2nd Edition

36Breadth and Depth

I know that to paint the sea really well, you need to look at it every hour of every day in the same place so that you can understand its way.

—Claude Monet

My work requires an intimate familiarity with my subjects—the kind of familiarity that evolves over time. Because of that, I will probably never be a travel photographer. By the nature of their work, travel photographers make relatively short forays to a variety of places and portray their fleeting impressions from the perspectives of outsiders. In contrast, I never feel I have anything meaningful to express about any subject or place unless I, myself, am a part of the story. The kind of works that appeal to me and that I wish to create favor depth over breadth, first-person ...