Photography by

Norm Riffle



 
 

Nude, 1973

 

It would sound pretentious of me to say my teacher called this my "first masterpiece", but so be it.
Subsequent attempts at getting beautiful women to pose for me have been catastrophic.
 



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Waterfall, 1975

 

I'm lucky to have taken this early in my "career".  I see it as a metaphor for life, and have drawn on it for inspiration many times.

That, in life, we go through stages, adapt in each stage......
That each stage passes..... transition is turbulent, the outcome uncertain.
Eventually, through a million different ways, we all reach the same place.
This is normal.

(This was downstream from "old man's pool" near the summer camp I went to as a teenager.
A very poor negative but perhaps one of the best prints I've made from it, further enhanced by the miracle of Photoshop)



 

Garden Fence, 1978













Stairs, 1987

 
 




 
 
 

Blackberries/Wall

1988

 
 
 

Hey, I should have been at work, I was on my way back when.....

Weeks later it was all "cleaned up" and painted. Probably not by the homeless guy who lived in a box nearby......
After Catherine pointed out the fish and bait, I didn't care for it....but it has been popular.
 



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Indian Beach

Ecola State Park
Cannon Beach, Oregon.
A clear November afternoon.



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Water Supply


The pebbles at the bottom appear as a view into another dimension.
The earth's sparkling viscera.


It's still early on a friday evening, I'm finished with service calls on the coast. It was/is my custom to bring enough supplies with me that I take just about any road that looks like it goes farther into the woods and if I get lost, I won't be in too bad of shape for a day or so. (This is more difficult with my laptop and GPS now.) Anyway I turned off this fairly major logging road after going over a bridge. I always look for water. A stream usually. A road followed the stream for a ways and then a small turnoff appeared that went down to the water. There was a small dam in a most serene scene.....moss everywhere. The sun glistening at just the right angles....
paradise.

After acclimating myself to the surroundings, I dug the camera out. Hmmmm. no extra rolls. BUMMER, 4 exposures left in the camera. Well, the pressure was on. One of the most beautiful places and time, and I could only make 4 exposures. There would be no "bracketing", each image had to be right the first time.

I'm balanced on a couple rocks, tripod in the water, peering through the viewfinder when.....

It became absolutely quiet.

Even the birds became silent. I looked up, around, chills up and down my arms and spine..... SURE  I'd see a burning bush, UFO or bigfoot.
.......when I realized.........the stream had stopped flowing.
Someone or something far away had opened up "the valve" for the weekends' demand of water.

I made the exposure after regaining my composure several minutes later. Note the rocks show a water level drop of about 4-8 inches, with only about 2 inches remaining in the stream. Unfortunately, the 4 negatives are somewhat underexposed, this by far, my favorite.
 
 



 

Leaves, 2002

Another based on the premise that you can find something beautiful everywhere, if you look hard enough.......

I stumbled out the door one morning - fog, hungover stupor inside and out, when I saw this leaf on the back of my car.
I had to photograph it. I looked around and there were four more of the same variety and I arranged them on the back of my car, thus. The visual acid trip, is from photoshop, but I think not overdone. It did sorta look like that.
 




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Molalla River, 2002