For
me, the photograph is raw material: not an end but a beginning. Cameras limit
us with a single focal distance and a single viewpoint, but when we see,
our minds compose our perception of a scene from numerous viewpoints and
foci. Glimpses integrate to create these perceptions. The single print I
present may incorporate 100 photographic images that together form my vision.
This art has emerged from my attempts to understand how we assemble our perceived,
unified reality from many glimpses of varying viewpoint and time.
For the last century, the primary purpose
of a photographic image has been to record. I add the notion of combining
glimpses to echo how we experience a real scene – as islands of detail
surrounded by oceans of generalization.
Photography itself is for me all joy,
light, possibilities and a vision. Bringing the images together demands
nothing short of full consciousness – an
intensity of endless interrelated choices and interactions. I work alternately
from the inside out and the outside in, developing fine details and defining
broad overviews, until the captured images bond smoothly. The finishing
process is meditative: checking, printing, checking, framing.
Some subjects work for me and despite my wishes, some do not. To work,
the subject must be still while I collect all this data from slightly
varying viewpoints. It must have details that follow three dimensional
planes in interesting ways.
I want my art to transport you into a place and perhaps into a time.
My images are created to intrigue you into their space in a different
way every time you visit them. A sense of peace and tranquility is
my aim. In a true Zen fashion, this is built from a very active and energetic
mental process. In this space I find peace.
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