A Door

This isn't my favorite photograph I've ever taken. But it's maybe the moment I figured out what I wanted to do with photography.

I really like Stephen Shore. I like David Hockney's flatness. I like Luigi Ghirri's photography. There's a contemporary guy, George Byrne, who I like, and the quiet framing of Wim Wenders.

But seeing this — these three strips of grass, then the monochromatic shed building, then sky — I just was like, okay. I want to find things like this in the world. Things I can flatten down into a striped shirt or a simple field of color for a painting. Not quite Mark Rothko. Closer to Ellsworth Kelly and Barnett Newman. Simple bold forms and color. The work I love the most.

Driving in the Inland Empire, I found this. And I thought, this is what I'm going to be looking for for the next ten years.

And I still am.