Statement
Photography, ‘painting with light’, as the Victorian pioneers termed this then 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 also, converting the colour to greyscale, and 'playing with the curves'!
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