Originating with the aptly named May Fly, which has a one day life span, ephemera are essentially transitory things or conditions intended for a brief life or usefulness. Ephemera are those fleeting moments when a view or glimpse or idea slips from the momentary grasp of the eye, ear or mind—the evanescent shadow or tune—quick to vanish, and called ephemeral.

These photographs are part of a growing portfolio of images that are true ephemera—conditions that last barely fractions of a second—as well as images of things that look frail, fleeting or impermanent but are actually quite substantial. Inexplicable things of unusual visual intrigue; the deep explosive innards of fireworks seem to be things that we know; the physical construction of a work of sculpture looks like it might vanish in its own cloud; the striated glass of an SUV headlight and a medical waiting room shimmer mysteriously. The thematic tie that binds is the non-objective abstraction.