ROUGH BEAUTY

I like Dave Anderson's photographs. A lot. His portfolio from Vidor, TX entitled ROUGH BEAUTY portrays a sense of the heroic and tragic and the assimilation of life and death and landscape in a beautifully lush, poetic way through a sensitive exploration of place and people that yields revelation yet never gives too much away.

All of my life I’ve been sneaking into places I don’t belong. As a child I’d dive into the furthest reaches of the family attic to see what ancient items had been passed down and then forgotten...There is so much beauty in the overlooked details of our world. I love the spare grace of decay and the splendor of the mundane. Caught moments with those I know well and discovered moments with those new to me all offer such magic and delight. And with all of these interests, there’s nothing that fascinates me more than that odd juxtaposition of beauty and isolation that seems ever-present in the landscape and our lives. -Dave Anderson



I wanted to share this work for two reasons- first, I recently met Dave and he has proven to be friendly and open and has provided some much needed encouragement, and second, after discussing the big scary global issues depicted in simon norfolk's photographs of the militaristic sublime i thought it apropos to share some sort of antithesis- a body of work that addresses the human condition and society in a much different way. I happen to believe that if more people were as sensitive as Anderson to the beauty that surrounds us then perhaps Norfolk would have fewer battlefields to photograph.

For more, go to Anderson's website, DBAnderson.com, or listen to a nice interview here on NPR.