Art emerges from my mind and invites you to step outside yours.
Despite six decades with photography, my focused attention can flit among competing projects like a toddler. More of a meandering tour than a point-to-point journey.
It’s still an odyssey, but there was a noticeable tide change in how I shoot and relate to photography. It started when I was assigned the seemingly impossible task of photographing “Kindness” at a regional club shootout. Under time pressure, I did the best I could by shooting things that were evidence of kindness. Over time, I realized I could use the known vocabulary of cinema and other reality distorting techniques to reveal invisible subjects without leaning on evidence alone. Metaphors, techniques and evidence could be combined to say and ask more than “Look at what I saw.”
It’s still an odyssey, but there was a noticeable tide change in how I shoot and relate to photography. It started when I was assigned the seemingly impossible task of photographing “Kindness” at a regional club shootout. Under time pressure, I did the best I could by shooting things that were evidence of kindness. Over time, I realized I could use the known vocabulary of cinema and other reality distorting techniques to reveal invisible subjects without leaning on evidence alone. Metaphors, techniques and evidence could be combined to say and ask more than “Look at what I saw.”
Sometimes I shoot with targeted intention and a project in mind. But I also photograph things I notice, without knowing why they caught my eye. Sometimes the reason comes to me later, sometimes not. The best ones grow a spine and become projects. Some remain solitary statements or questions.
Somehow, I continue to be surprised by how differently others perceive reality. Reality as I perceive it, to be honest. Acknowledging bias exists doesn’t remove it.
My art comes from a life-stained mind and invites you to examine our world through my tinted lenses.
Like beauty in the eye, meaning is in the mind.