My blog this month leads with a lovely quote from an attentive and generous critic, Ramsay Bell Breslin, commenting on one of my Bailieboro photographs:

So many things to admire about this photograph. I like the way you use the edges of your photograph in surprising ways. On the left, a small scene in the far distance I barely noticed at first; on the right, a scene set in the middle distance. Of the photograph as a whole, what looks at first like a simple scene that one can grasp at a glance turns out to be more complex, which makes it fascinating (for me at least) to contemplate.

The romantic in me loves the waves of snow in the foreground and the feathery grasses that blow over them. The post-modernist in me admires the pole (another surprise at the edge), which throws what seems like an intentional wrench into our expectations of a quiet winter scene.

In post-modern architecture one sees annexes attached to buildings that look nothing like the buildings. Here the telephone pole seems out of place. As such, it grates on one’s desire for visual harmony and something we believe we have every right to expect of art.

But no, your photograph is anything but complacent. Life is harsh and often awkward and uncomfortable. Telephone poles loosen and tilt under winter conditions. Tolerating that visual discomfort is part of our job as viewers….