I hear and I forget, I do and I understand, I see and I remember
Category Archives: Recent Personal Images
Series: Floral Essence
#3 Amorphophallus titanum
Frills on the Spathe of Amorphophallus titanum
The Amorphophallus titanum is the largest unbranched inflorescence flower in the world. The plant grows to between 6 and 12 feet tall. With a name and size like that it’s no wonder it makes the news when it blooms.
Phallus Spike
From bulb to bloom can take up to ten years. After that long wait the bloom only lasts for about 24 to 48 hours. The plant originates in Sumatra in Indonesia.
Film cross-processed | Amorphallus titanum
Because of this plants unusual resume I thought how can I make an image that suggests its dramatic presence. I settled on cross-processing some of the images to evoke the energy of this amazing plant. Cross-processing is when you use positive film and process it in negative chemistry. Doing this you never know what you’ll get.
Spathe (leaf) Amorphophallus titanum. Film image
This series of images is part of a larger collection called Floral Essence. I’ll share more about that in the near future.
To see these images and more flower pictures visit the gallery Flowers at www.wayneeastep.com
Many years ago I was walking past a small grocery store on Madison Avenue in New York City. In front of the store were tall buckets filled with flowers. One collection of flowers caught my attention, they were parrot tulips. I think it was the first time I had seen this type of tulip. It was love at first sight.
That moment was etched in my memory. Many years later that experience triggered an idea. I made arrangements with a wholesale florist to import three dozen parrot tulips each week. For a couple of months I would photograph the parrot tulips in my studio. The tulips were so varied and beautiful. I kept seeing new variations in the design and ended up creating a collection of images of the parrot tulips.
Like many people I had an appreciation for flowers. Now the feeling has turned into a passion. I keep a bouquet of fresh cut flowers in our home every week and continue to create images of them
Close up of parrot tulip petalsClose up inside parrot tulip blossom
I’ve curated a series of the flower images and will be sharing them in the coming weeks.
Like many children, I loved to go out in the rain and splash in puddles on the street.
Rain, like a cloud, is easily taken for granted. Water is integral to our existence. When we pause and observe, we have the chance to get in touch with something elemental in our lives.
Hurricane Milton, Sarasota, Florida
Different types of rain elicit a wide range of feelings. There is gentle, poignant melancholy in a light, mid-afternoon rain. It feels safe – even reassuring. Rain is a symbol of renewal and rebirth. When rain comes in excess it can be terrifying, bringing the potential for destruction. We use our technology to build roads, canals, bridges, levees, and dams – assuming we can control nature. Then a devastating storm comes and we are painfully reminded of our limitations and the need to live in ways that are in harmony with nature, respecting its power.
I can remember a number of times when I was about to leave a cafe in New York City and a thunderstorm delivered a torrent of rain, giving me the excuse to stay put, have another cup of coffee, and share more time with a friend.
The 2025 New York Fashion Week will celebrate with a one night reopening of Studio 54.
This selection of images I made at the peak of Studio 54. I was a young aspiring documentary photographer and the cultural scene at the club was a rich source of inspiration and fun. There was a freedom then that allowed me to get up close and personal including going on stage to photograph Chuck Berry and his daughter Ingrid as they performed live.
The “golden mountains” is a name given to the Altai range since ancient times. The mountains run along Kazakhstan’s northeastern border with Mongolia, China, and Siberia. It is noted for its rivers, waterfalls, pure springs, and spectacular vistas, and is home to the totemic snow leopard and argali mountain sheep. Mount Belukha is the tallest mountain in the Altai range, rising more than 4,500 meters, or nearly 15,000 feet. The peak is often shrouded in clouds and has its own unique persona, one steeped in history and religion. It has witnessed Chingis Khan invading with 200,000 Mongols, and listened as the chants of Tibetan Buddhists, and the songs and laments of shamans echoed off its sheer cliffs.
It is traditionally called Üch Sümer, meaning “three peaks.” Belukha may be Sumeru, the mythical Central Asian mountain of Buddhist belief, the center of Shangri-la (Shambhala), where only the spiritually advanced may enter.
“Golden Mountains”
There are many magnificent mountain peaks in the world, and we admire them for their grandeur. Belukha calls us to silence. As we stand in its presence, awe fills us, and we start to sense something unknown and full of energy.
Abstract Images are a common feature in our minds and world
Abstract art can help us see parallels and sense echoes between our aesthetic expression and forms in science and nature.
Sonar Image, floor of the Gulf of Mexico
At first glance, these images appear to be abstract art. Under closer examination, we see that they are scientific images of the ocean floor indicating deposits of gas, crude oil, and voids.
Sonar image of oil and gas reserves, Gulf of Mexico
Imaging of the brain produces similar abstract images. We have a natural capacity to know these shapes and use them in abstract art. Upon deeper reflection, we realize that we have the capacity to understand and express these insights through art. The cognitive function of the brain is what we refer to as the mind. Therein lies a universe of symbols and archetypes that manifest as innate knowledge. This may be why we are touched by abstract art. The art does not objectively describe something that exists as an object. It expresses something that we feel and know, almost like a memory from a dream
Sonar Imaging showing oil and gas reserves, Gulf of Mexico
To see these images and others in my photographic archive, visit my website: WayneEastep.com
Fine Art landscape prints illustrating the presence of wind and evoking serenity
Make your space serene with these fine art photographic prints. Abstract photography has the power to beautifully decorate a space and trigger an emotional sense of calm and serenity. You can select these prints or draw from my archive for similar images.
There are realities we know even though we can’t see them. There are forces beyond those which we see. Wind is a clear example of this reality. We can’t see the wind. What we can see is the effect of the wind.
These three images are graphic examples of that fact. The first image is looking through the surface of the Atlantic Ocean at the shapes of a sandbank created by the wind and tides moving the sand under the water. We don’t see the wind even though it helped create these beautiful forms.
The second image shows an elegant line on the edge of a large sand dune in Arabia. The wind moves the millions of particles of sand, reshaping an enormous sand dune. Even when we can see sand blowing off the edge of a dune, we are not seeing the wind but what the wind left behind.
The third image is a familiar image of a wave being shaped by the partnership of the moon and the unseen wind.
We see the trees sway, the grass bend when the wind moves. Our knowledge of the natural world informs us that the wind is at work. A higher knowing is our intuition, which takes us beyond the physical plane to the dynamics of energy active in the atmosphere, where the recipe of the elements is creating the forces that shape life around us. When we attune to this alchemy, nature is given a chance to teach us that there is an inner knowing which goes beyond what we “know”.
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Sometimes a picture leaves us with more questions than answers.
Take this image of Americas smallest Post Office.
Why is it so small? Why is here on the edge of the Florida Everglades? Having been exposed to so many hurricanes, how has it survived? Who uses it?
When I drove past the tinny building I stopped turned around and took a closer look.
I realized the picture I was going to make was less about the documentation of the architecture and more about the feeling it triggered the stories I imagined.
Who was the postmaster? How many people used it. If it wasn’t there how many people would be affected. What kind of relationship did the customers have with the postmaster? When was it built and why? The unanswered questions go on and on.
The saying is “ever picture tells a story.”
I’d propose that some of the more interesting pictures often leave the story unfinished with more questions than answers.
I am honored to have my work about the Bedu of Arabia featured in the current issue of ETHMED online magazine. The values of this traditional and ancient way of life have persisted for over five thousand years and have adapted to modern life in the 21st century.
It was one of the highest honors of my life to be accepted by the clans of the Al Amrah and Al Erq of the Al Murrah tribes to live with them and document their way of life. From 1980 to the present I continue to maintain a relationship with the clans and learn so much about respect, honor, relationships, loyalty, survival, and adaptation a few of the values that define nomadic life among the Bedu of Arabia.
Gathering at the wedding of Mohammed Alerq. Social protocol demands that everyone sit in a circle. Dahna Sands, Saudi Arabia
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