Special thanks to Linda and Richard Becker
for their generous support for Dek Unu.
Eleven
This is Dek Unu Magazine. In Esperanto, dek unu means "eleven." Eleven images from a single artist. Eleven artists in eleven solo issues in each publication year. Dek Unu publishes the work of a new artist-photographer in each issue. The artist's work and words are featured in individual focus as the sole purpose for each issue of the magazine. Unlike other arts and letters magazines which might look for work from a variety of artists to support an editorial staff's theme, at Dek Unu, theme and imagery are always each artist's own.
Student photographers learn, early on, that you don’t shoot the object, you shoot the frame. While there may be a central focus for an image, the camera captures everything else, noticed and unnoticed, in the rangefinder. Whether this leads to serendipity or tragedy, a compelling background or a mush of distractions, it is never long before the photographer learns to consider everything visible in the frame, top to bottom, side to side, before pushing the button. With practice and before long, snaps become compositions, compositions become stories, and the frame includes not only physical objects but also the intellectual and emotional meaning of mature artwork.
In his portfolio for this month’s Dek Unu, American artist-photographer Norm Diamond, demonstrates a ninja master’s understanding of composition and visual semantics to take us deeply into each remarkable, emotionally-loaded image. Here’s a dark hotel room, the margins of its locked door sharply lit from the hallway, framing the way out, revealing the sleepless night within. Another shows a sunlit and green early summer day through a dark mahongany window frame, itself framed by heavy curtains, all enclosed in a still, shadow-shrouded parlor. These are views from inside looking out that do not let us forget that we are still inside.
These photographs only rarely include people, but, with a mix of imagination, meticulous technique, and the artist’s special sauce, Norm Diamond makes us feel like we are in each picture, the essential but invisible element in each composition. Photographer Emmet Gowin said, “"There are always two things happening in a photograph: what’s there and what’s not.” Norm Diamond shows us exactly what that means.