David Walder
Art can be a way of learning how another person sees the world and sharing that vision to create something new.
When we began this project, we hoped to create poems and images inspired by—and connected to—each other’s work. David, a photographer, chose 25 pictures to share from his 91,000 digital images. Lao chose six poems. We exchanged pictures and poems, with no clear idea of what the end result might be.
We then began the process of creating something connected—in any way we chose—to what we had been given. Lao wrote poems inspired by David’s pictures and David took photographs inspired by the poems. David also chose images within his digital collection that connected to the poems. We hoped our work would result in a new third piece of photos and poems that was different from where we had started. We were excited to see what developed.
In the pieces “Backyard” and “Blue Note Dogs,” Lao’s poem was written as an appreciation of the artistic endeavors pursued in their neighborhood. David expanded the concept by including the thriving downtown music scene as part of his backyard and photographed the Duke St. Dogs, a local band playing their regular Friday dinner gig at the Blue Note Grill. The end result was a collaboration in which each piece enhanced the other and enriched our view of community.
This has been a fun process of discovery, learning and collaboration. We hope readers and viewers will bring their own insights to it and create collaborations of their own.
