"Struggle".

My theater mentor in Cedar Rapids, Artistic Director Richard Barker, retired this year after 26 years - directing. He directed me in the musicals "Starmites", "A Chorus Line", "Echoes" and a bit part in "The Manchurian Candidate" (funny, I just remembered that cameo role). I love him dearly. Everything he represents about the theater are qualities I would have no problem emulating. About 6 years ago he got into photography (a fact I just found out about this past May). The bulk of his work is manipulation of a photograph after it's been taken, forsaking the image as captured by the camera. Check out his website, ImageAfterImage.

I recently saw a friend's artwork and a couple of her pieces reminded me of this shot, one of my favorites of Richard's work, called, "Struggle". I've featured it in my self-published photography book, "Passion = Truth, a photographic essay of life's truths".

"(Struggle) began as a shot of grasses and small flowers. After working with it for a while I began to see people reaching and pulling instead."

- Richard Barker