Statement
Photography, ‘painting with light’, as the Victorian pioneers termed this new discovery, continues to make technical progress as the field widens with unbridled imaginations. However, when working in black & white I’m most interested in shooting on film, using the particular qualities which make up an image captured through a lens onto a light sensitive emulsion such as blur, depth of field, grain, movement, unpredictability and of course quality of light (and maybe even stealing your soul!). Digital capture is a brilliant technical continuation of photographic work but holds no magic for me: an innovation in search of a soul.
• My photographs are about emotion, connections and capturing fleeting moments. What captivates me and holds my attention inside a great photo is not easily explained but it is something to do with entering the photographer's mind. What are they seeing? Am I connected and therefore in a communication with the artist? Shared experiences bring a feeling of worth and 'being there'.
• Inspiration, for me and other photographers, is all around. Many like to have a camera at all times, not so hard now with the dreaded camera phones! The impact this has on my work is, in a way, a problem: editing. Are there the hours in the week to make hard decisions about the worth of a photo, treating the raw file in Photoshop (actually I like Lightroom) and uploading to my website? Having said that, quality of light is what it's all about. A sunny or moody period of weather will have me reaching for my camera.
• Over the years black and white photography held the key to unlock qualities mentioned in the first paragraph. The directness and lack of confusion of signals in B&W imagery still hold. The techniques are changing however. B&W negatives printed on silver bromide paper can show a superior material quality, different to a digitally captured image output to inkjet print. Still, I'm using digital photography, converting the colour to greyscale, and 'playing with the curves'! Sexy…
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