#anseling

Storm Bear Artist Statement My work emerges from a life lived on the edges — of time, of place, of identity. As an older queer man, I see the world through a lens honed by resilience, tenderness, and deep observation. Each image I make — whether a quiet still life, a textured landscape, a fleeting moment in the street, or an experimental composition — stems from a desire to preserve what is vanishing, overlooked, or dismissed.

I photograph not to decorate but to witness. I am not interested in prints that match couches or mimic trends. My images are not mass-produced decor — they are fragments of love, thoughtfulness, and history. They are visual testaments to forgotten textures, fractured light, worn pathways, accidental beauty, and the oddities of our shared spaces.

Whether it’s a blue plastic chair casting a long shadow in an alley, a craggy desert formation under an apocalyptic sky, a hungry squirrel stealing processed food on sacred land, or a weathered man playing guitar beneath a pink sky — each image is a moment of quiet resistance against disposability.

I believe in images that breathe. That ache. That asks something of the viewer.

My photography is a catalog of what we are losing: ecological subtlety, eccentric street characters, humble materials, and unscripted moments. And in that loss, I hope to create presence — each photo a small, luxurious act of remembering.

Storm Bear

I am a queer fine-art photographer that takes too many photos. Most of the photos I take are just for me. Sometimes candid, sometimes documentary, I just snap a ton of pictures. My studio work is shifting to carefully constructed sequential still life triptychs. Here is the first...

This is from my series, Declaración: Objects Of An Unfinished Country Series. It explores the Declaration Of Independence and and its relationship to the people of the Mesilla Valley in New Mexico.

Triptychs such as these are going to be my focus for the future. But I will certainly be taking photos - like all the time.

Photos are the journal of my life and they will continue to be so.

“It was a chauvinistic characteristic of our nation to attach political names… to the glorious features of our land.” - Ansel Adams

Nikon Z8 Nikkor Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR California

Hasselblad 503cx, 80mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss, Ilford HP5 Plus

Nikon N8008s Nikkor 50mm, f/1.8 LomoChrome Turquoise 100-400 Las Cruces, NM