Pity poor Oakland. Playing Newark to San Francisco’s New York across the water, Oakland definitely gets no respect. This is the city that gave the “no there” to there, a gritty and high crime urban wasteland.

In real life, Oakland is a vibrant place of great variety, from beautiful hills to wildlife to sleek downtown skyscrapers to a controversial new cathedral and a busy port. (View my Flickr Oakland set.) Sure Oakland has its barrios, but these slums don’t remotely touch the grimness of those of the eastern cities.

But none of this really matters to me, because I’m only really interested in the Oakland of my mind. These images are what I really saw at the time I took them, but then again I was high on acid. Or not. LOL.

Results here have a very different aesthetic purpose than my impossible images. This story shows initial reality (whatever that is) as used as grist for my creative mill to create compositions that have intentionally lost believability. At the end, these are closer to paintings than photographs.

From top to bottom:

• Oakland Reflections II
• Persistence of Refelections
• Oakland Reflections
• Civilization
• Tower of Babel Pink
• Tower of Babel Blue