As I walked, raising my head occasionally to the sea, I began to discern an unusual black shape in the distance. Soon it became apparent that this immobile object was a man sitting on a rock. He was resting his head in one hand, his eyes covered. His other hand grasped a shepherd's staff, its crook resting under his arm.

As I came closer, I slowed my pace and moved more gently over the rocks. I felt that I was invading a vast and serene privacy that would be shattered by my presence. I held my breath as I moved closer for fear of startling the man. I expected him to look up at any moment; then I stopped, only a few feet from the bent figure. I slowly raised the camera to my eye and pressed the button. He slowly raised his head, looked at me calmly, and said good morning. The picture had been taken, and the experience was over.

Each photograph in this portfolio was a personal experience and a particular moment in time both for the photographer and the subject. The people in these photographs lived in small villages and isolated farmhouses scattered over the Greek countryside. They were mostly poor people but extremely proud and strongly defined as individuals. Most of the young had left to seek work in the cities of Greece and distant lands, leaving behind a sparsely settled landscape of old people and children.

My passage through this countryside was leisurely and unplanned, that of a friendly observer. My presence was accepted with unquestioning warmth and hospitality. In time I came to learn that nothing is more sacred to the rural Greek than philoxenia, which literally translated means "friendship toward the stranger."

The resulting photographs should be viewed as one man's experiences in Greece.

No attempt has been made to define Greece or the Greek people, for such attempts inevitably lead to generalities. By his unique nature each human being defies generalities, and no two people are the same. The individual is constantly changing in relation to time, his environment, and other people. Selecting a split second in which to arrest this passage through time is the unique magic of the camera. These small particles of time have passed. Whatever truth and meaning they might possess are captured forever in these images.

The subject of American Color is photographs made in the United States but not meant to comprise a general or definitive statement about the country or its people. These images are a collection of specific moments selected from a narrow spectrum of public places and events. Presented without the constraints of captions, these photographs have a life of their own and invite a personal response from the viewer.

My favorite pictures have always been complex ones that ask questions and pose problems but leave the answers and solutions to the viewer. These images have a long and evolving life, in which the photographs may transcend the subject and become the subject. Central to the strength of these images is photography's most precious and unique quality, believability: that the moment preserved on a piece of paper is true and unaltered, that it really happened and will never happen again.

In the search for photographs I have come to realize that the best pictures are surprises, images I subconsciously seek but do not recognize until they suddenly appear. These are thrilling moments in a type of photography which can be frustrating and

unpredictable, with the picture often spoiled by something so minor as a wayward cloud over the sun or the momentary glance of a subject at the camera. In approaching people, I prefer to be the observer rather than the observed and value the human presence as the most important element in my pictures.

The flow of people in a setting, their changing relationships to one another and their environment, and their constantly changing expressions and movements all combine to create dynamic situations that provide the photographer with limitless choices of when to push the button. By choosing a precise intersection between subject and time, he may transform the ordinary into the extraordinary and the real into the surreal.