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A childlike understanding |
The Face of Darkness |
News pictures from the 70's |
Press pictures from the 80's |
The
Look of Revelation |
More
to come... |
Primarily I am a black-and-white photographer. To me,
the context of the subject is best conveyed without the
visual clutter of colors to distract from the point I
am trying to make. Without exception, I use Kodak Tri-X
pan film and process each roll by hand in Acufine developer
with an effective ASA 800 rating. This high-speed combination
allows me to go indoors or out without changing the film
in the camera. Over time, I have learned by heart the
few limitations of this film/developer combination and
instinctively know how it will respond to almost every
lighting situation I will come across on any given assignment.
This memorized insight allows me to stay focused on my
subject in the cosmic now moment rather than be mentally
distracted trying to adapt to another film interjected
into my seeing the picture equation.
  Over
the years I have found that I work best when I keep most
essential camera details very simple. I use two identical
Nikon 35 mm camera bodies. For most shooting assignments
I have a 28 mm wide angle lens on one camera body and
a 105 mm short telephoto lens on the other. These two
lenses most typify how we as humans see. The wide angle
is what I refer to as a female lens and the telephoto
is a male lens. Women see life from a wide angle lens
outlook. That is, they see everything around the subject,
the foreground, background, sky above and ground below...with
almost everything in focus. On the other hand, the telephoto
lens views from a typically male perspective, seeing very
little foreground or background while focusing only on
the subject.
  When
photographing in most situations I will use both lenses
to capture a total perspective of the subject. When editing
for the definitive picture I will chose the visual aspect
that I feel best reflects the subject from my own consensus.
Later, once again in the darkroom, I will then custom
hand print each selected negative, often spending countless
hours recreating the picture just the way I envision it
to be.
 I
relate to each person I'm photographing as if he or she
is the most important person imaginable at that moment.
I feel it's hardly rocket science to get a good portrait,
particularly when I give people reverence and I see them
the way they want to be seen. Consequently in the end,
together, we make the picture we both wanted.
 Today,
photography is the universal terminology that immediately
transcends all cultural and vocabulary limitations to
reflect our deepest spiritual desires: to see truthfully
and be seen honestly. Photography is the language of our
soul. |
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