push

push

better leave while you can
if you can

you wont know when you've gone to far
or far enough

you wont be able to turn back

don't go to slow
you might pass it by

practice
not stopping
practice
stopping

surrender
pulling and pushing
watching

focus
screaming and punching
kicking

surrender
sitting still and meditating
watching and waiting
saying to myself

better leave while I can
if I can

I was recently interviewed by the famous Dana Root-Bishop of Transformazium. I wanted to post it here as well. I am also excited as I have been asked to be a photo contributer to their log. You can check out their log at www.transformazium.org/log/ . You can check out the Transformazium website at www.transformazium.org .

D - What is photography to you?

E - Edward Weston: Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk.

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/edward_weston.html#ixzz1ESXjvwFW

For me, photography just is.

D - What is your personal history with being a photographer?

E - In my head, I do not refer to myself as a photographer, poet or artist, I never have. That is really just what other people have identified me as. I think people put labels on you, or name you as something when they connect with what you have made. The name artist, photographer, poet – just helps all of understand that connection.

D - Where does your desire to share your work with others come from, I mean you could choose to keep it all private.

E - The sharing part happens because it comes from my enjoyment, I want to share with others the things I am enjoying. I really appreciate the connection, the relationship built that we both share something together. Like if we both like the same song, there is a link, a bond. Also, art for me has always been an outlet. I believe all of us need outlets, whether it is TV, cooking, sports, or art. It’s as much for me as it is for you. When you create something, you don’t know what the life of it will be. When I was growing up art was very private for me. It was seen as a feminine type of attribute that contradicted the “tough” life of the neighborhood. I was afraid of letting others see this part of me. I usually shared my art with family or close friends. After encouragement from my younger brother I started bringing more of my art out. I remember he said something like, “ Edward, you are a grown man, you’re almost 40, WHO CARES! None of that tough stuff matters anymore, just be yourself.”

D - Do you think that the fact that your circumstances – in which you made the choice to keep your creative work private, actually allowed you to develop it more deeply within your self.

E - Yes, I was a very private person – and still am somewhat in general, though especially growing up. I never would have been having this conversation with you, much less sharing art. I would not be married to my wife. The ways I have grown with the things I make have allowed me to be who I am today. Poetry and photography have allowed me access to a process of self-reflection, self-healing. Art saves lives and art is one of the reasons I am who I am today.

D - I think so often about this, the power of vulnerability. How dangerous it can feel to be vulnerable, yet how vulnerability is what allows all of us to learn,

E - Yes, vulnerability happens when you have a creative outlet.

D - What is the relationship between your day job and your poetry, your photography?

E - I am very grateful to have a regular 9-5 job, I am very grateful I can provide for my family. Providing for my family is what is most important to me. Family and friends are the most important things in my life. My 9-5 job gives me the freedom to do art on my terms. I know people that their financial productivity is directly related to their ability to interpret other people’s ideas into their work, melting them. I think being a starving artist is overly romanticized and my priority is not art it is my family. I would love to do art full time though I will have to plan it out, even if it is at retirement, to be able to sustain my art through art.

D - At what point will you consider yourself an artist?

E - I will probably never define myself as an artist – I just want to enjoy the things I am doing. I think putting a label/naming anyone puts him or her on a pedestal; I do not want to be above anyone. I do want to be clear though, I do feel very humble when people refer to me as a photographer, or a poet or an artist – I am very grateful and it feels positive, it feels like that is their way of experiencing what I enjoy at that moment, a union.

D - So, a while ago Transformazium asked you to be our “official documentarian.” We asked this because we wanted to formalize our gratitude for the pictures you were taking the work we were doing, the ways that you were capturing the projects we were engaged in…

E - Wait I don’t think it was like that. I think we just found something in common. I love graffiti and art and all of the sudden I saw it happening in a different way in the neighborhood – I saw what you guys were doing with it, so very involved. I liked it. And you saw what I was doing. And liked what I was doing. That is what began the relationship. I don’t see it as a want or a need from either of us. Just the place we meet.

Edward Murray is the author of Stranger’s Pilgrimage. Stranger is a contributor to Dionne’s Story, an anthology of poetry and prose for the awareness of violence against women. He has most recently been accepted as a contributer to Ginosko literary journal. He is a member, and past president, of the Langston Hughes Poetry Society of Pittsburgh. His poetry has appeared in Writer’s Block at the soulpitt. He is an artist, filmmaker, photographer and poet. He was born and raised in southern California during the 1980’s and 1990’s. He grew up in an economically challenged neighborhood with gangs, drugs and violence. During those times he chose to participate in certain activities and then found relief or therapy from the difficult situations by writing, drawing or taking pictures. He was nick named Stranger because of being away from the neighborhood on many different occasions. Barbara Lewis sang a song named, “Hello Stranger,” this became his adopted name. His last stay in jail provided an opportunity for a reduced sentence in exchange for enlistment in the US Army. He spent ten years in the US Army, where among other things he met and married his wife. They eventually settled on the east side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They celebrated seventeen years of marriage in July of 2010.

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stranger1970/sets/