I love to visit photography museums and exhibitions, and do so as often as I can. As a result, I’ve seen and admired Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Yousuf Karsh, Richard Avedon, Berenice Abbott, Matthew Brady, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Man Ray, Robert Mapplethorpe, and scores of others to numerous to list here.

I find the photographic art form intimate and immediate. It amazes me how differently one human being can see an object from another - how its essential nature can be conveyed simply, yet powerfully.

This is one of the reasons I am in awe of Greg Pease. While we all know Greg as a designer of fine artisanal tobacco blends, he is also a gifted photographer. Just take a gander at the image at the top of this post and you’ll see what I mean.

I rolled this Adam Davidson creation through my fingers numerous times in Chicago, admiring its craft, but I never saw its essence like Greg did.

Pease can look into the lines of an object, person, or landscape and conjure a soul-dance through the lens and aperture. In my opinion, he’s made this pipe immortal. By just photographing it, he’s made it precious.

You want to understand what art is all about? It is about extending reality’s boundaries, investing the mundane with the sacred. Pease does that. He did it here. Frankly, I wonder that he hasn’t become so busy with the camera that he doesn’t have time to blend. I suppose it’s really a telling thing that he would continue to design blends.

Some months ago, I suggested to Greg that, in addition to printing his Celebration of Briar Calendar, he make high quality prints of his pipe photos available to us. He’s done that.

Greg’s images are available unframed or framed at Imagekind.com at various sizes. They’re available at pretty reasonable prices, too. Steals, if you ask me.

I can’t imagine many better exhortations to the love of all things pipe than a luscious Greg Pease framed photograph on a den wall. There are going to be several on mine soon.