The photograph on the right is a Bundt pan and is a rare example of my subject matter that is sometimes called a “still life” or “found object.” There’s nothing special about it, in some ways, and anybody could duplicate it given the battered old tin pan. I like the image because the pan seems to turn itself inside out when presented this way, a kind of optical illusion.

Ordinarily I think photographs of old decrepit fences, Yosemite’s Half Dome, Edward Weston’s peppers, and similar works found in galleries and museums are trivial and boring. Anybody can reproduce these. But Ansel’s “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico,” is magic on paper. Many people photograph the American landscape from the air, but Bill Garnett’s photographs have another kind of magic distinct from anybody else.

When I make a photograph I’m trying to show you something you will never see otherwise…even if it’s just an old Bundt pan’s optical illustions.