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| I photograph the natural landscape because I must. This process – this meditation – takes me outside of myself and brings me closer to the light, colors, textures, forms, rhythms and smells of the natural world. I breathe in the beauty, absorb it. And the beauty absorbs me. There is no longer a sense of separation. I lose myself. And find myself again. It is serene exhilaration. | ||
| Such moments are the subject of my latest solo exhibition— Transcendence: Photographing the Unseen, New and Reconsidered Work. | ||
| My work has become much more personal. That’s largely due to my reconnection with the compelling landscape of the Southern Tier of New York State, especially in and around my boyhood home of Whitney Point, after moving back here in 2003. | ||
| So some of my latest work represents a homecoming. And some of it is a departure. I still photograph with my large format field camera and I still use film. It is a slow, contemplative, spiritual process. But I‘m also doing more work with my digital SLR. Its instant feedback encourages exploration. And that fosters growth. | ||
| I’m experimenting with subject and camera movements. The result is a series of abstract images I’m calling Time and Motion. It’s a study of the camera’s ability, during long exposures, to see and record a world our eyes would, otherwise, never see. | ||
| I’m converting color images to black and white when the graphic elements are right for it. I’m exploring form and texture, light and shadow, found in nature’s small details and even in windows around the house. | ||
| Whether I’m using film or shooting digitally, I ask myself the same questions: What will I find if I try something new? What will happen if I change my perspective, my vantage point? What if I do something that runs counter to all my habits and instincts and past successes? | ||
| What if? | ||