The Ongoing Nationwide Highway Beautification Effort of CR Stecyk III

I am a member of a multi-generational clan who have employed photography in decidedly different ways. At points there have been three generations of us simultaneously active in the practice. Our 1925 family Leica camera is still functioning. And a chemical darkroom remains operational, which is a somewhat curious artifact in this digital age. My father, who once photo-documented the freshly irradiated ground zero of Hiroshima as a military officer, classified his “camera as a tool that was certainly not as important as his hammer.” 

Photography was widely posited as being the art medium of the twentieth century. Its’ origins were scientific and elitist. Now virtually every one’s pocket contains an image gathering device. Visual democracy is at hand. 

My family had a small parcel of land outside of Taos. I squandered years away out there chasing mirages. I utilized lenses of equivalent focal lengths which were manufactured by different makers. Each unit was selected for its’ unique optical signature. Glass produced by Zeiss, Takumar, Century, Fuji, Nikkor, Canon and Leitz was represented in my mix. It was a thoroughly satisfying process in that I was constantly locked in the pursuit of the unachievable capture of transitory illusions. Absolute purity exists amidst the absurd.