DoubleVisions

They were simple salt and pepper shakers in a museum cafe.

Obvious, and yet I felt drawn in by the way the square glass dispensers modestly touched, unified but separate, each being itself, which in this case, meant being salt and being pepper. There was the way the black and white pair appeared confident amidst the bright orange chair framing their snuggle. How harmonically the shape of their spout openings echoed the chairs.

More than a decade ago, that photograph, that moment at the museum launched my obsessive search for pairs, duos, couples, duplicates and doubles. I hunt for coincidences of unity. Wherever I am, at home in North Carolina, or traveling the streets of Istanbul or Brooklyn, I seek to find the bond of connection that comes when one thing exists in relation to another. I delight in spotting form, discovering duality, capturing expected and unexpected unions along this random experience called life. Some doubles are barely together and tenuous; others appear inseparable, even inevitable.

When I’d collected dozens of DoubleVisions, I began sharing a photo each week on Facebook. Every Tuesday, like the rock station playing two back-to-back hits by Led Zeppelin or Pearl Jam, I posted a duo. 

My extensive portfolio ranges from cars to fruits, from landscapes to abstracts. A section featuring people subdivides nearly endlessly, traversing from parent and child to performers, people in architecture, strangers, lovers, athletes, street people, babies, on and on. 

The retrospective, a gallery of twos, doesn’t include everything. I’ve omitted some natural doubles that often spring to mind; twins, for example. Ditto feet or hands or eyes. I did make a few exceptions, though, such as a pair of painted work boots, worn by the man who created them, a North Carolina folk artist named Sam “The Dot Man” McMillan. 

Every trail has its limits. Every lens reveals a vision, and DoubleVisions developed into a way of seeing, one I homed in on everywhere I went.

Much has been said about the elemental nature of two. For starters there’s the obvious egg and sperm, Adam and Eve, yin and yang, day and night, up and down, inhale and exhale, birth and death. DoubleVisions reflects a look on the lighter side. It’s a playful and poignant world where connection and nonconformity intersect. And it’s my journal from the last dozen years.