I often get asked if I manipulate my photographs. My answer is always, “Yes, of course!” But no one has ever asked, “Why?” And I have an answer for that too. “Because my camera doesn’t know what I’m feeling.”
For me, making a photograph is making art. I want to do more than capture where I’ve been and what I’ve seen. I want to share with you what I feel when I’m out there. And that is often more intense than what my eyes see.
I was in Long Valley last summer preparing for a photography class I was teaching for the Mount San Jacinto Natural History Association. It was midday and I was walking around wearing my amber tinted Polaroid sun glasses. Why do I mention my sun glasses? Because I was getting very excited about what I was seeing. And for those of you that know about midday light, it is anything but exciting. But the amber tint of the glasses and the effect of the polarization on the sky and foliage got me excited. Added to that was how good it felt to be back in these mountains after an absence of 15 years.
I want to share what I feel…. And that is often more intense than what my eyes see.
So, I asked myself if it was OK to make photographs that reflected my mental state when it contradicted the physical reality of what my eyes saw.
Continue reading “Finding the Soul of a Photograph”
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