forgottenpittsburgh's photostream  

Author of:
The Pinhole Camera, A Practical How-To Book for Making Pinhole Cameras and Images

I'm a simple man. I don't like attention and I'm a better listener than conversationalist. I am a watcher of things - lighting, textures, shapes, and colors. For me, photography is a means of personal expression, emotional exploration, and inquiry into the world which I find myself. Images should visually convey a concept or emotion that cannot be expressed verbally.

A camera is just a machine, just a tool in most cases. It isn't a collector's item, but merely a wrench in my toolbox. I have many wrenches. Each in a different size for a specific job. My tools range from digital SLRs to classic SLRs, plastic toy cameras to antique kodak boxes, and a 4x5 Graflex crown graphic once used by the Navy to handmade pinhole cameras constructed of cigar boxes and cookie tins.

Style and techniques are just another way to use my tools. The unlimited number of ways that I can photograph a subject is what makes the medium so enjoyable: black and white or color, sharp focus or soft, infrared or visible light, or alternative processes such as photograms and pinhole. If I haven't tried one yet, I may be missing something interesting.

Subject matter is my means of expression. It allows me to travel to places, both literally and imaginatively, that I wouldn't venture to in "real" life. There is a story behind each image, each location, each portrait that I shoot. If there's not, I've imagined one for it.

A diploma is proof that I have student loans and yes I have that precious piece of paper. My talents as an artist aren't proven by my diploma but rather a current body of work and continued body of work. I have a BA of Arts in Art from Pennsylvania State University, but I learned more from reading and shooting than my professors' lectures. My occupation isn't as a photographer. I tried that. It is difficult to keep your interest pure when it has to pay for the bread and milk each week.

I am a simple man. I am a photographer at my deepest core. I am a watcher of people, places, things, and ideas.




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