High Tide, Low Tide
Pondering Eternity (Study 10) High Tide, Low Tide reflects on the rhythm of life — how thoughts and dreams rise briefly like bubbles in the mind while something deeper continues moving through us all. Video direction & editing: John GerstnerMusic: “High Tide, Low Tide”Written by John GerstnerCreated with Suno AI ← Back to Pondering Eternity ▶ Lyrics (click […]
Am I A Musician?
After creating 17 songs with the AI music tool Suno, I reflect on authorship, creativity, and the lingering question: does writing songs with artificial intelligence make me a musician?
Back When I Used to Run the Bix 7: A 1986 Race Diary
Murmurings made into a tape recorder before, during and after the legendary 1986 Bix 7 road race in Davenport, Iowa.
Why I Photograph
My father once appointed me the “official family vacation photographer,” a role I took more seriously than anyone expected. By the mid-1980s I had already spent more than fifteen years walking through the world with a camera—at work, on the road, in cities, farms, factories, and quiet corners of everyday life. This short reflection, written around 1985, was an attempt to understand why photography had become not just something I did, but a way of seeing and living.
Bay to Breakers Run – San Francisco
A short piece written after running the Bay to Breakers in San Francisco on May 17, 1987. What began as a race quickly revealed itself as something closer to street theater—part carnival, part political satire, and entirely San Francisco.
Field Notes #1: NField Notes #1: New Work, Pondering Eternity, and the Evolution of a Practice
Earlier this year, I applied for a Guggenheim Fellowship.What I didn’t anticipate was how much the application process would demand personally. I revisited more than 40 years of work. Slides. Early digital manipulations. Paintings. Mixed media. Thousands of images I hadn’t seen in decades.