A leaf on a sidewalk, photographed by my dad’s college photography professor

The past couple of days I’ve been buried in leaf images from a project I’ve been posting to the new “Try this” section on spudart.org. It’s about pressing leaves in a book, but writing a short caption on an envelope about the leaf. And then putting the leaf in a book. I’ve been doing this since 2021.

Then today I come across an image that predates them all.

An image from 2012. It appears to be a book cover with an image of a leaf on a sidewalk. It’s a striking image, particularly since I’ve just been writing and thinking about finding leaves on sidewalks.

Side note:

I leave art on sidewalks for people to find. But the “Leaf Pressed Stories” reverses that. Instead of leaving something on the sidewalk for someone to find, I am the one discovering something on the sidewalk. Then I pick it up, like an artwork I found, and take it home with me. I let the leaf create thoughts in me.

Just like how I wish when my art is found on sidewalks, that the artwork would stir thoughts in people. Now I’m the one picking something up and thinking about it.

For over 25 years I’ve been leaving art on sidewalks, never really knowing what people think of it. And just now I realize that “Leaf Pressed Stories” puts me into the shoes of the people whose stories I never know.

It’s sorta like completing the story arc.

Man, I come to realize all this while looking at Joseph Jachna’s image.

Ok, I jumped ahead to the reveal. What is the significance of this image? I’m curious how I came to capture this image 14 years ago. A book in front of a window with the Chicago L tracks behind it. It’s so Chicago.

Here’s another image I took that night from another window in the gallery. You can see more of the Chicago train station.

Zoom in close to the book in the original photo. It’s actually not a book, but a flyer for a gallery exhibit.

Joseph D. Jachna
Surface Contradictions: The First Twenty Years
December 7, 2012 – February 23, 2013
Opening reception with the artist: Friday, December 7, 5-8pm

December 7, 2012 is the opening reception? That’s the very night I took this photo! Ah, yes. I remember now. I met up with my dad that night at this show at the Stephen Daiter Gallery. Located on the 4th floor of 230 West Superior St in Chicago.

Indeed, the gallery looks out over the Chicago station for the CTA brown line.

The exhibit webpage is still online. Impressive. Joseph D. Jachna: Surface Contradictions, The First Twenty Years « Stephen Daiter Gallery

Now for the Joseph Jachna connection. My dad studied with Joseph Jachna for his BA at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1969. The Art Institute of Chicago has 110 of his photos.

That night in 2012, I got to meet Joseph Jachna.

So that’s all kinda interesting. I’ve been spending a lot of time with leaf images from sidewalks, and here’s this image of a leaf on a sidewalk (or maybe rock surface) made by one of my dad’s college professors.

Looking closer at the image.

My first thought was that this was actually a leaf mark left in concrete. Earlier this week I noticed the sidewalk across the street from my house has a few of these leaf marks in the sidewalk. I want to photograph them now. Maybe do a pencil rubbing of it.

Come to think of it… these marks in sidewalks are fascinating. They are such a temporal thing. A leaf happened to fall on the sidewalk. Now that leaf is memorialized for decades. Same with kids writing their names in wet concrete. Or animal footprints. That brief moment in time, now set in stone, literally.

My “Leaf Pressed Stories” series is a lot about memory. I have an upcoming 3,000-word blog post about these themes.

The image Jachna made is very striking. The dramatic tones. The wet surface of the concrete (or maybe it’s a flat stone). The write-up for Jachna’s 2012 show says:

These photographs represent an overarching theme Jachna returned to time and again, all ideas of self – exploration, reflection, and expression. Incorporating opposing surfaces found in the outdoors – Rough/Smooth; Wet/Dry; Matte/Lustre; Luminous/Dark; Teeming/Empty; Opaque/Transparent – Jachna enhances natural contrasts…

Which describes the formal aspects of this photo. But digging deeper into Jachna’s approach to photography, the show description says:

For Joseph D. Jachna, photography has always been a spiritual practice. His photographs are quiet meditations—offerings from a lifelong naturalist. Jachna considers himself a poet with a camera, creating the visual equivalent of a Haiku. As with Haiku, the highest form of Japanese poetry, his ideas flow with an intensity created by combining a few carefully chosen elements in a spare and elegant framework.

Ahh, the photography version of haiku.

I almost want Jachna to write some haiku to accompany his photos. I know that’s not the point. The point is that the photos are simple, yet speak a lot. But I really want to see some interdisciplinary work here, with words related to the photos.

Perhaps that’s me drawing out how I write captions to go with my leaf images. Perhaps when I write on my envelopes, I can write the caption in haiku format.