“The Reflective Powers of Water as Visual Alchemy” is California artist Marques Vickers photographic edition of over 120+ images of inverted and reflective objects created by water exposure. The diverse photo sequence was captured through various bodies of water and fountains throughout northwestern Washington State. FROM THE PREFACE: The transparency properties of water create magical illusions for reflective and submerged objects. Their reappearance creates inverted shapes and forms resembling non-objective artwork. Water based distortions become variations of substance and shadow resembling visual alchemy. Though water appears crystalline, in truth its instinctive properties are a slightly bluish hue. The accentuated surface tension diffuses and redistributes color seemingly random and erratically. The interaction between deconstructed color created layers of overlap suggesting a deepened texture. Alchemy in its purest form is the ability to transmute base metals into noble and precious derivatives such as gold. The practice of western alchemy dates back to ancient Egypt with the city of Alexandria as its capital. Islam and Asian based religions embraced the shadowy art from their earliest inception. This ancient transformation of base metals symbolically assumed a spiritual dimension as an elixir of life. In the context of water reflection, linear shapes are restructured into abstractions and curvatures. Objects are liberated from their fixed matter and reshaped into fluid forms lacking edge and definition. The decline of alchemy as an established practice was facilitated in the early eighteen century by the rise and acceptance of modern scientific methodology. Ancient spirituality and mysticism were displaced by experimentation and quantitative comparison. Chemistry universally replaced the role of alchemy. There remains a space for interpretive alchemy when one views the unlocked reflections stimulated by water. Restructuring matter becomes as mystical as water transforming into vapor under extreme heat. Does not life resemble a vapor? demands the poet. There is room for suspending concrete imagery and structured color each time we view the reflective and distorting properties of water. The results create stunning and unimaginable imagery.

“The Artistic Properties of Reflective” is California artist Marques Vickers photographic edition of over 105+ captured images of inverted and reflective objects mirrored by glass. The diverse photo sequence was captured through a variety of windows from the port district of Tacoma, Washington. FROM THE PREFACE: When lightning strikes sand, the optical dispersal of imagery mirrors and scatters coherent composition. The alchemy involved in forming glass creates curtains of fluid and reflective waveforms. This distortion reassembles appearance into fresh reconstructions. Reality is transposed into a hallucination of disintegrating elements, elevating its innate simplicity into multi-dimensional appearance. This deconstruction process enables a viewer to visualize objects into unimaginable patterns. We are confronted with a vision that challenges our neatly and concisely constructed assemblages. We are compelled to acknowledge the inner layers of composition superficially invisible to the eye. We break imagery into constructive granulated sands that ultimately disjointed unions. Alchemy in its purest form is the ability to transmute base metals into noble and precious derivatives such as gold. The practice of western alchemy dates back to ancient Egypt with the city of Alexandria as its capital. Islam and Asian based religions embraced the shadowy art from their earliest inception. This ancient transformation of base metals symbolically assumed a spiritual dimension as an elixir of life. In the context of glass reflection, linear shapes are restructured into abstractions and curvatures. Objects are liberated from their fixed matter and reshaped into fluid forms lacking edge and definition. The decline of alchemy as an established practice was facilitated in the early eighteen century by the rise and acceptance of modern scientific methodology. Ancient spirituality and mysticism were displaced by experimentation and quantitative comparison. Chemistry universally replaced the role of alchemy. There remains a space for interpretive alchemy when one views the unlocked reflections stimulated by glass. Restructuring matter becomes as mystical as reconstructing sand particles into sheets of solid matter.

“The Architectural Elevation of Technology” is a photographic survey of 75 prominent Silicon Valley corporate headquarters buildings. The 134-page edition is photographed and authored by California artist Marques Vickers. The geographical territory included with the book is framed to the north by Redwood City and extended to the south until Cupertino. Corporate headquarters are included within the cities of Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Menlo Park, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Milpitas and Fremont. Notable structures include the Oracle, Samsung and the Apple 2 campus, currently under construction. Background is provided on each building’s history and when each present tenant began their occupancy. “The photo project’s motivation was based on my curiosity as to the public face of the information technology sector,” notes Vickers. “Did the more prominent companies mirror the aesthetic polish of their online renown and presence? Would their architecture reflect the affluence and prosperity many of these industry icons have come to represent?” “Silicon Valley technology parks, corporate campuses and headquarters appear indistinguishable from other more traditional office construction. Their appearance is generally consistent with contemporary design trends favoring reflective glass framed by steel and masonry.” Vickers observes in his accompanying commentary several distinctive traits regarding high-tech constructions. Among those include decentralized layouts, lack of streetfront parking and the significant shielding of inside views by landscaped trees and foliage. “The true innovation and resources appear to have been concentrated on interior space management schematics and novelty design.” Vickers adds, “The intention is purposeful. By creating a playful and aesthetic interior environment for employees, many are inclined and stimulated to spend significant additional hours on work-related projects in the facility. Social bondings are encouraged, creating a synergy of professional comradery. Working hours assimilate into lifestyle preferences.”

Michael McCaffrey has lost his teaching idealism, but not pragmatism towards his profession. “Teaching with One Eye Shut” escorts you into the classroom, faculty room sanctuary and campus grounds of St. Elizabeth-St. Ignacious (SESI), a northern California Catholic high School. Your host, McCaffrey is an eight-year business instructor beyond the burnout stage and uncertain as to his future in the profession. His turmoil carries over into his personal life and relationships. McCaffrey shares his clear-eyed observations about classroom instruction, discipline, peers and the bureaucracy accompanying teaching. He dismisses imposed school administration artificial team-building tactics. For him, teachers are individuals expressing their point of view on subject matters as they visualize it. Peer’s advice and Principals are of marginal value. His evaluations are often cutting and dismissive. They are balanced by periodic inspiring and surprising heroics emerging from unlikely sources. McCaffrey seemingly has an unflinching opinion about everyone and especially himself. His students can be a distracted and devouring audience, but he is genuinely appreciated. He introduces the reader into the authentic and sometimes erratic nature of classroom lecture and discussion. His teaching subjects include technology, marketing and law. His students’ responses address more poignant issues including racism, home life and their futures beyond schooling. The deeper exchanges are often conducted between classes or emerge amidst casual conversations and daily interactions. McCaffrey addresses timely issues over the success and shortcomings of contemporary education. He concludes that society comfortably maintains misplaced priorities and ignorance towards education and its practitioners. He takes issue with uninvolved parents who drop their children off like dirty laundry and expect a private institution to cleanse them of their bad habits while educating them. He maintains that Catholic education is distinct and different from public schools. His conclusion is based on expected behavioral accountability and reinforced discipline, rather than superior personal, facilities and educational techniques. A school’s objective remains to stimulate a graduating class of lifelong learners. This lofty goal is tested daily by certain under-achieving, troubled and unmotivated students, neurotic faculty members and hamstrung by trifling misdirected rules. McCaffrey notes that victories surface when his contemporaries enable students to navigate the tenuous labyrinth of adolescence and learning His varied observations encompass teacher liability, absence policies, and career burnout, objective grading, classroom discipline, school fundraising, compensation, athletic programs, peer gossip and pranks, equipment deficiencies, and dress codes. McCaffrey is SESI’s acknowledged faculty satirist who zealously guards his private time absent of extra-curricular supervisions. He is never a perennial candidate for Teacher of the Year honors. His cast of instructional intimates and foils include basketball coach and confident Rich Ringer, siren Suzzi Issacs, milquetoast Dennis Greeley, incompetent Alex Orrigo, misdirected Tim Lovelace, mumbling Principal Brother Moody and a colorful parade of diverse and eclectic personalities. A variety of candid and favorite students are introduced with the irrepressible Ralphie Houwser heading the list. McCaffrey feels trapped by his inability to move forward with his life. A year ending interaction with one of his peers offers him hope. Will a Parisian rendezvous on Bastille Day become his ultimate liberation from professional and personal stagnation? “Teaching with One Eye Shut” addresses the fragile and volatile role of mentors and educators. McCaffrey’s memoir offers a realistic and humorous view of the realities behind high school instructing, spiced by his periodic exaggerations.

Author Marques Vickers returns to his hometown of Vallejo, California with his memoir “You Can’t Return Home Except Through Photographs and Memory”. The personal narrative traces his formation within a community that through his eyes has slipped a notch from both the middle-class and affluence. Vickers employs a light but candid tone on a gravely perceived subject, Vallejo’s regressive deterioration. The suburban San Francisco Bay Area town of 120,000 was formerly the California State Capital twice and home to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. The base closed in 1996 creating an employment void that prompted stagnation within the downtown core. Vickers was raised locally during the 1960s-70s. He traces the specific causes for decline as the proliferation of long simmering racial tensions, homelessness, aggressive criminality and drug trafficking. Returning in 1987 as an adult following a twelve-year absence, he was struck by the town’s smallness of scale. In spite of the successful recruitment of Marine World Africa USA in 1986, the addition has not elevated Vallejo into a desirable extended stay tourist destination. He observes that seemingly for every positive step forward, the city tends to relapse two steps backwards. Despite the deterioration, most Vallejoans he knows are proud of their grounded heritage. His text is far from bleak and bitter. He cites the town’s distinctiveness, attractions and diversity that positively impacted his personal development. His photo compilation was prompted by a return for the funeral service of a 90-year-old friend Andy who died on New Years Day 2017. Andy, a former longtime resident, avoided local visitations noting the degenerating conditions from his residence in adjacent Benicia. The author’s own series of memories were exhumed at the same time as the body of his friend was being lowered into the ground for burial. Vickers surveys the present tense community with his camera lens portraying a bittersweet reality. Although he cannot overlook the obvious, he hopes the current downtown may ultimately be viewed as an isolated puzzle piece fitting into a larger positive legacy. Balancing his criticism with objectivity, humor and insight, Vickers attempts to accurate portray a subject he mourns and knows intimately.

This edition is an intimate photo examination of the infamous Butte, Montana sex trade once nationally recognized during the late 19th and early 20th century. Over 135 current photographs document the remnants of the famed copper mining town’s prostitution core. The work details historical anecdotes, narratives on colorful personages and perspective on an era when prostitution was locally institutionalized. The remaining Dumas Brothel is a profiled parlor house noteworthy for its operational longevity between 1890-1982. The Dumas is the longest tenured American house of prostitution. The property weathered numerous reform movements and attempts towards forced closure by governmental authorities. Owner tax evasion ultimately shuttered the property. Across the road is the Blue Range Building, the last street-facing example of the lowest extremity of prostitution once employed within the district. The seven sets of ground floor doors and adjacent windows housed segregated cubicles called cribs. Diminutive cribs accommodated only a single bed and an occasional washbasin. Lower esteemed prostitutes serviced clients from these utilitarian spaces. Butte’s prostitution industry reinforced a rigid hierarchy of distinguishing elite mistresses for the affluent and influential, from lowly street solicitors. The lifestyle of sex professionals was plagued by drug addiction, financial debt, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, abortion, violence and abuse by their patrons and jealousy-motivated clients. Suicide was common even amongst the highest regarded women within such a cannibalistic environment, During the turn of the twentieth century, Butte was one of the largest Rocky Mountain population centers. Its licentious reputation mirrored contemporary Las Vegas. Unlike many western frontier settlements, cowboy culture made minimal intrusion. Butte’s red-light district is a haunting environment with a complex past.

Shadowlands is a photographic concept edition accentuating contours, silhouettes and dominant color compositions of 150 photographic images. Many of the images are recognizable icons and landmarks. They are transformed into graphic arts appearance by employing photo imaging software. The accompanying shadows create a foreboding and often sinister impression. The result is a glimpse into the unconscious white space that frames and lightens photography. Photographer Marques Vickers has assembled a diverse portfolio of internationally compiled images. Their reverse lighting reinvents the impression, often upsetting our conventional interpretation of their substance and matter. The effect mirrors the surrealists’ notion of superficially unseen structures that open the portal for interpretative meanings. Imagery is enabled to transcend precise and simplistic definition.