I’ve adopted the term Photo Expressionism to label one unique and painterly style of my photographic artwork. Because it is often extremely manipulated, some have said it is too different in style from my straightforward photography. I’ve heard that it confuses “my brand”, not to mention offends the purist bias in many corners of the photography world that insists true photography only happens in the camera. The darkroom used to be included in that caveat as well, but with the near disappearance of film, even stalwarts have mostly let that one slide. A recent blurb in The New Yorker announcing a retrospective of Barbara Kasten, the renowned abstract photographer, makes sure to point out that “she has always achieved her effects through analog means, eschewing digital glibness.“ I have never claimed or tried to be a master craftsman of photography. What I’m passionate about is art. It just turns out that the camera and, often but not always, digital post-production are the tools that speak to me. The journey from observation in the world to finished artwork is anything but glib.
When I was a kid I invented elaborate games that only I could understand. There were usually boxes and balls and sticks involved and rules that became ever more complex over long periods of time. That instinct to elaborate through intuition and an always-evolving process of trial and error is as fundamental to my art as the resulting image. I believe creation is always organic and never contrived. The explanations and definitions of art come after the fact and are always meager approximations of the actual expression. As often is said, “If I could describe what I do, I wouldn’t need to do it.” Like the other ~Isms in art, Expressionism and Abstract Expressionism were shoots of consciousness that bloomed in the soil of what came before. Photo Expressionism is what I call my search for subjective, emotional imagery that emerges through digital manipulation applied to photography.
There are other artists who create beautiful imagery with computer generated content, magnetics, drawing programs etc. What I do can only exist by starting with photography. It begins in the field where I’ve learned to forage with my camera for a very particular quality and balance of visual components. Through years of trial and error I’ve leaned which raw material in the viewfinder will more likely yield to desirable but always unexpected discoveries.
Splash Down
To look at anything and perceive it as something else through the power of imagination is my goal. With my unadulterated photography this happens most often through framing and context. I try to steer viewers toward a practiced “way of seeing”, to encourage appreciation that every visual moment has a structure and beauty that calls out to be experienced directly and fresh. Whether straight from the camera or subjected to complex manipulation, it’s the escape from hardwired mental labels associated with subject matter that binds all my work and makes it cohesive.
“What I do can only exist by starting with photography. It begins in the field where I’ve learned to forage with my camera for a very particular quality and balance of visual components.”
Secret Canyon