"As a child living in a small town in rural Virginia, my mother would read to me stories from 1001 Nights. There also happened to be a small Flemish designed carpet that I would spend what seemed like hours sitting upon and imagining myself flying over strange and exotic lands. This was my magic carpet. Years later  I would come to the realization that a magic carpet was simply a metaphor for any vehicle that possessed the power to transport you to worlds real and imagined; my camera became my "magic carpet".          - Robert Hale