CHRONOPHOTOGRAPHS
In life, each sequence of moments is a bit of a story with a setting, a plot and characters. My early work focused on setting. I explored environments, both natural and man-made, with a sense of wonder and fascination.
The works in my Chronophotographs series add characters and a few moments of their passage through the world. In these images the plot lines are simple: these images are not so much about plot, but about people "being in the world". When we see someone move through the world for a few moments, we feel that we experience some small part of who they are.
My images are constructed from a series of photographs. I generally see an interesting setting, then just wait for someone to pass through the world in front of me. Taking the actual photographs is, for me, a rather casual affair. Often, I simply point the camera without even looking through the viewfinder (using a super wide-angle lens makes this possible).
The real work of composition, coloring and style comes later. I assemble images in Adobe Photoshop, and occasionally incorporate artistic elements I've created with Corel Painter, Adobe Illustrator, and Autodesk's 3D StudioMax. Images gathered in a few seconds often take many hours to assemble into a final work.
The studio work progresses like most artistic activities. I have an initial sense of how an image should look, then as I work with the image, it gradually guides me to the final composition.
Some themes do seem to keep recurring in my work. First, I have a fascination with color. I love bright saturated colors, and I carefully craft an appropriate color scheme for each image. Second, I like the 'grand view'. I am strongly interested in setting, and I do a great deal to accentuate it. I stretch and distort perspective lines (thanks to inspiration from Ernst Ludwig Kirchner). I do this for compositional reasons, but also to present the viewer with more of a 'being there' experience. Finally, I like the ambiguity that arises when we see a picture simultaneously as an object in the world (ink on paper), and as a window into another world. So, in the spirit of trompe l'oeil painting and cubist collage, I am always experimenting with surface treatments. I use a touch of digital embossing here and there. I use shadow and highlight effects to present real or illusory layers.