During my infancy as a commercial photographer, I quickly learned the real nature of my job - to communicate my clients’ needs. I was not there to serve myself. So, how to bring attention to the subject, or hero, of the image was always at the forefront of my approach. Composition was one tool to weed out extraneous content. But my most powerful tool became lighting on location. It also became my favorite part of the job.
After years of shooting landscapes in my spare time, I decided to bring those same powerful strobes I used for commercial work into the landscape. And as with my commercial photography, using these strobes in my fine art photography became a technique to not only guide a viewer’s attention to what I considered the subject of an image or improve a graphic quality that is almost right, but also to provide me with delight while solving visual problems, as I had commercially.
Once during a magazine interview, I was asked about the nature of my work in relationship to my interest in contrast. I think my answer was “it’s amazing how much time I spend lighting to make a situation look dark." I know that she was asking about my lighting style in my black and white work, but it made me realize I like contrast in other ways as well. Contrasting theories, contrasting politics, how contrasting relationships work, the nature of competition with colors. It reminded me of a quote by Stanley Kubrick, “However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.” (I would love to be able to ask him if he was being metaphorical or literal. I feel and hope it’s both.)
I have always questioned myself regarding the origins of my style, but never to the extent of being unable to answer the question. It simply is. Because I am so much more passionate about light than I am about snapping the shutter, it has become the device I will use, both naturally and artificially. Whatever I am shooting, if the light that I look for is not there I will "supply” it if it is possible.
Yeah, God’s light is pretty damn cool, but it’s not always how or when I want it. Sometimes natural light just needs to be augmented. (Sorry, God…)
“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”
— Sir Francis Bacon