Statement

Photography ...

originated in Greek terminology, meaning 'writing / painting with light', suggests being interpreted as an expressive and creative act, rather than thoughtless snap-shots or mere documentation.

As in all visual arts, in photography it is equally essential to distinguish between the natural design we observe and the personal design we create. I see photography as a creative process much like painting or sculpture. Not only is taking pictures, or better 'Making Photo-Graphs', biased and constructed via mind and tool, so is viewing and our perception of photographs and everything around us. Rather than using photography as a vehicle to convey sociopolitical messages, I try to point the viewer towards the challenge and recognition of pure design - where light, line, texture is the message.  

Since its invention photography has been associated with the recording of reality and has become the norm for the way things appear real to society. It's a commonly held - and false - believe that the camera gives us a picture of the world that represents what we would see without the camera, that the camera simply duplicates what the eye sees.

It is often automatically assumed that the scene depicted in a painting is not as it appeared in reality, that the artist has included his own feelings, way of seeing and expression. Alternatively, in viewing a photograph, we tend to believe that it is the truth, that it is a factual document of something that existed in the exact form in which it was recorded....nothing could be further from the truth.

Photo-Graphs are an expression of what the photographer sees and imagines. They are an individual's perception...an individual’s reality and view of the world. This applies to the photographer as well as to the viewer. As a result, one could say that the camera's lens is equally pointed towards our surroundings as inside our soul. It illuminates the observer as well as the observed.                                                                                        

All photography starts with seeing, followed by the challenge to transform reality into personal expression and emotion. I think a photographer needs even more imagination than a painter. The painter can invent things, but in photography everything is so ordinary and 'real' to start with. It takes a lot of imagination to brake free from reality. The painter starts with an empty canvas  -  the photographer starts with a full one, facing the challenge to envision and reveal the essential, to exclude clutter and to discard the inessential.

Despite all the technology hype and possibilities of the digital age, the most important part of photography - and for that matter of all visual arts - is still the ‘Art of Seeing', the recognition of the elements in visual design and freeing the subject matter from its identity.  It is our imagination and creative vision, experimentation and the breaking of rules. It is about overcoming conservative thinking, the willingness to let go of the convenient strategies that worked for us in the past and the acceptance of making mistakes.

The challenge is not to master the functions of the camera, but to transform the observed into a personal interpretation. Photography is not about capturing a scene, but about expressing yourself... by shaping and altering the scene through your imagination. It’s about opening a window into a differ-rent world, a world shaped by emotions rather than by logic. Here reality has little or no relevance.

As Ansel Adams rightfully stated: ”The single most important component of a camera is the 12 inches behind it ”

Photography, especially in the digital age with its convenience and technical superiority, can be the easiest medium to be confident. But, on the contrary, it can be the hardest medium to have personal vision, because we are constantly reminded of - and held back - by the demon of reality.

Photography is both - realness and abstractness. Resist the urge to ask 'what is it?' - resist the label. Instead, let your eyes roam over shapes, lines, textures...and their arrangements, responding emotional, not logical.

I hope you enjoy viewing my images as much as I do making them.

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