Booth 224
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About the Artist
I first picked up a camera in high school, fulfilling a fine art curriculum requirement. I learned core fundamentals of the camera and darkroom using Ansel Adams’ Zone System and print-making techniques. I soon found a love for finding beauty in the nuances of natural light and shadows. Although I occasionally create an image in color, I prefer to eliminate the distraction of color from the subject matter, as is depicted in black and white photography.
Decades later, I have exchanged the film and messy chemicals of the darkroom for the ease of a digital camera and computer. Navigating the shift to digital photography took perseverance, as well as some classes from a local photographic mentor. The process may have changed over the years, but my love for the art and the craft of photography remains steadfast.
By definition, photography is an abstraction of reality. In my art, I focus on the simplicity and detail of my subjects as they appear. By exploring the interplay of the light and shadow captured by my camer,a I strive to enhance the drama of the scene before me. My compositions tend to be realist in nature, rather than manipulated. I love when I stumble upon something that seems almost forgotten and draw out the hidden beauty. My piece, Revenant, demonstrates this experience. We were walking along a dockyard in Denmark when I spotted a replica of Venus de Milo in the window of a shuttered museum. The grace and luminosity of the statue stood out in stark contrast from the lines and texture of the surrounding brick. The black windowpanes and arched window further framed the subject perfectly. It’s currently one of my very favorite pieces.
What I love about black and white photography is the stability and order it brings to what was a chaotic scene. The tones — light, dark and mid-range — are all connected to each other. What was once a jostling combustion of color pandemonium is at once peaceful and soothing. It’s hard to describe the joy I feel when a turbulent scene I spied through my camera’s viewfinder translates into an image laced in elegance and grace.
