Here is Bob Ng's reflecting, and sharing with us his approach to photography. Three months ago, he had shown me a book of his work – all in black & white. So when he later saw my Memorial Mural and offered to take stills, I felt honored, and recently asked him to please write about his approach.

"As an old school photographer that grew up with film, chemicals and darkrooms, I learned to savor each precious click of the shutter. To consider each shot. Time and money were limited and not to be wasted. I learned to see the light and shadows. To ponder the shapes and contours. To think of the meaning of the scene before me. To always look for the next great shot. 

In a world where every phone is a digital camera and billions of new images are posted to the internet every day, it is easy to become blasé and jaded by the of surfeit photos flooding our visual space. Most get barely a glance, before we click the mouse and move on – to the next set of images. 

But even today, a great still image retains the power of all great art. To make the viewer stop, and look, and ponder, and perhaps go forward with a different, more expanded sense of herself and the world around her. 

Like Einstein’s theories on relativity, a great photo freezes a moment in time and space. We imagine what came before and after. We study what is contained within the frame and extrapolate what lies beyond. We parse the differences between two and three dimensional objects. Between physical reality and abstract symbols. We project. We imagine. We confer meaning. 

Karina’s Black Lives Matter Mural is a perfect subject for the prescient photographer. Simple words, black on a white background, a flat two dimensional subject. It is stark in its simple presentation. And yet, it is far from simplistic. 

Like an over-sized Rorschach test, it can be viewed as nothing more than a clever arrangement of black pixels on a white screen. Or swirls of black paint on a white, wooden background. Yet it has the power to reach across the void of time and space, and move us to feelings of rage or sadness. Or perhaps just thoughtful consideration of our human condition. 

If one takes the time to listen, the images begin to speak. Stop. Look. Ponder. Go forward with an expanded sense of yourself and the world around you."

Stills by Bob Ng