I wandered around a harbor side dock with my camera exposing
a variety of images that interested me, objects or configurations that offered
intriguing abstractions of color, texture, shape, and composition, rather than
the scenic photographs that most tourists take in such a setting. “What are you
taking pictures of?” a passerby asked. I have become accustomed to such
questions when I am down on my knees taking photos of rusted mechanisms, rocks,
and rivulets of water, or splintered wooden posts, things that most people
don’t usually “take pictures of,” rather than the scenic harbor, historic
buildings, or seaplanes—things that many people often do take pictures of. An
honest answer to this question would go something like, “I am not taking
pictures of any thing in particular. I am gathering digital photographic
images, compositions, and textures that interest me and that I might use to
create artistic images,” what Ansel Adams who, disliking ‘creative’ and
‘artistic,’ defined as “photopoetry”.
I do not “stage,” create, or arrange the “content” used in the images.
I view my approach as a process in which I appropriate or ‘take’ existing
elements to construct or ‘make’ an image that does not necessarily represent an
independently existing reality. . The image may compel
attention because it noted something the viewer might not otherwise notice, and,
through that process, declare it notable.
When I use photography to make fine art images, I seek to
create a visual composition as the dominant viewing experience, often an
abstraction rather than a representation of a recognizable object. A viewer may
not always identify the subject of the photo. My approach emphasizes shapes,
colors, textures, pattern, light, line, and composition, to create an image
that I find aesthetically appealing and intriguing, even with subjects that we
might not normally identify as beautiful or artistic. I see these photographs
as images that stand on their own as works of art that I hope also to intrigue
a viewer aesthetically, rather than a representation of a particular entity.
