statement
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I am constantly taking photographs. I might not even be holding a camera. I could be in a deep conversation with a friend. I could be watching a movie. I could be driving. I would still be taking photographs. Looking is for me an active process. My brain goes a hundred miles per hour and analyzes everything it sees. During photo trips, a compulsion takes over me: a hunger to capture everything. I look up, down, sideways, upside-down and back, and you will often find me lying on the ground or up in a tree. I take as many photographs as I can. Back in the studio, I feel the itch to immediately sort and edit, then share them with the world. There is urgency in my creative process. A sense of exaltation, an obsession, an impulsive drive, a necessity. When I work, time stops, but at the same time it accelerates. I feel great joy as I get absorbed and focused.
I work with high resolution photography, which allows me to print in large formats. I print them on aluminum. This medium infuses dyes with heat directly into coated aluminum sheets. This process not only gives longevity to photographs, but also gives them a beautiful luminescence. My aluminum prints are bold, vibrant and feel 3-dimensional. My photographs come alive through the illusion that they are lit from within.
wetlands
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Art is always a reaction to the world around us, but I never intended to make a political or social statement through my photography until this collection. Doomsday Syndrome speaks of global warming, of pollution and mostly of a sense of a doomed planet. It describes the opposing feelings I have when on photo shoots. On one hand, I am overwhelmed by the Earth’s beauty and magic. On the other hand, I am crushed by the knowledge of its decline and its impending fate. This collection speaks of the hope and beauty we can still find in the doom and gloom.
“I don't need a camera to constantly take snapshots as I look up, down, right, left, sideways and upside-down.
Photography is a compulsion, an addiction, an obsession, a trance, a necessity. it's how I approach the world.
It's the insatiable hunger to capture as much as I can with my eyes and my heart.
I feel great joy in this intense focus. Time stops and paradoxically accelerates.”
I find our world overwhelming. I drown in its tsunami of visual and audio stimuli. Often, I can’t hear my own voice. I am drawn to Minimalism because of its silence, its calm and simplicity. It has a non-judgmental quality to it. Its strength lies in the removal of the non-essential, leading to the pure essence of a place, a person, an object, or a moment. It brings me peace of mind and clarity. In this collection, I push minimalism almost to abstraction, highlighting the composition, emphasizing sparseness, hoping for an emotional response from the viewer. The use of negative space is a key element in my compositions.
“Space is substance.
Cézanne painted and modeled space.
Giacometti sculpted by "taking the fat off space".
Mallarmé conceived poems with absences as well as words.
Ralph Richardson asserted that acting lay in pauses...
Isaac Stern described music as "that little bit between each note - silences which give the form"...
The Japanese have a word (ma) for this interval which gives shape to the whole.”
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- The Art of Looking Sideways (Alan Fletcher, 2001)