The black-and-white processes were reductive nine tones of grey to be explored in multiple combinations and held within a simple frame to be contemplated and savored. I experimented with many papers and chemistries—some I made myself and splashed with excitement in the safelight, as the thing observed became a new object of my creation. Small succulent prints demanded attention. I believed in modernism. Less was more! Form followed function...etc., etc.! Getting control of the camera, its properties and its extension of the mind's eye propelled my energies. Camera vision was an escape again from the deterioration of the landscape, both social and natural of which I was and continue to be witness. Content or narrative was somewhat abhorrent! Such things led me back to academic literature from which I came as a college student. Camera reportage could only mimic the horrors of the times, and social landscape documentary offered more adoration of the banal. This looking was about something new—abstract though complete in itself. It paralleled living poetry.The lens arts were still in their infancy and unique to a small number of practitioners whose spirit, values, and community seduced me. And that is how I viewed photography then.
Charles H. Traub from Object of My Creation, New York, 2010
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