Armory of Icons

The photographs of mine I like best challenge realism. The ones that prompt you to say, what’s that? You can use many tools to make antirealist photographs (photoshop, for instance), but my preferred instrument is the lens. The paradox in this is that realism doesn’t describe the way you innocently see the world with your eyes, but a set of conventions for making images in western art. At least since the Renaissance, lenses – first with the camera obscura, then with glass and mirror lenses (as David Hockney has argued) – have been integral to these conventions. So I might describe my general orientation to photography as using a lens to transcend a way of viewing based on the lens. My other preferred tool of abstraction is light, especially in macro shots where the effects are more often overwhelming and unexpected. I was raised on Kodachrome, and I still like working with a low ISO and toward a deep color saturation. And sometimes I like a beautiful sunset over mountains. Thanks for looking.