Michael L. Watson
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As a child I would dream of climbing high peaks and having incredible adventures in some far off corner of the world. Early on, climbing came naturally to me and I began to bring camera along as a way to document climbs and friends and soon found myself torn between two competing passions: the desire to climb and photograph.
After completing my masters in mathematics my desire to photograph could no longer be held at bay. Quickly I found that my style of photography was better suited to a larger camera so I bought a medium format and shortly after, traded that in for a large format 5x4 metal field camera. The contemplative nature of the view camera and the high degree of perspective control offered suited me perfectly.
In retrospect, many of my adventures have constituted more than most would willingly chose to endure, but my reward has been in the beauty I've found and in the photographs I have brought back. Many times I have not been the first person to visit some remote area but my sense of discovery is quite powerful none-the-less. While the intent was and is to communicate with the viewer, my photography is both introspective and highly personal.
John Math
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While photographing common things with movement of the camera, I create Abstracts and Impressions. Some objects become smooth and distorted, while other subjects become hard, edgy and not of this World. In either case, they come alive with movement and color. The photographs are unusual and some take on a painted like quality, without being altered in post production.
I photograph everyday places and things in a different manner or from a different angle than most photographers. I photograph these places and things from an alternate “point of view” and I am inspired and in awe of what has been created for us. Though these ordinary things were made by man and they become the focal point and the source of the photograph, they have also been touched by God in their shapes, colors, textures and form.
These photographs have not been manipulated with any type of digital software or by any digital filter system or technique. These photographs represent a new way of looking at something in a different manner than we usually do. God has provided us with beauty, form and function, even in areas that we would not normally look. They are there every day for us to discover and enjoy, if we will only look more closely.
Ryan McIntosh
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Ryan McIntosh photographs exclusively with an 8x10 camera, with a focus on "field photography", but not limited to that medium. Ryan specializes in Silver Chloride contact prints, which is a very old printing process that yields the highest quality possible over all other methods of traditional black and white printing. To Ryan, photography is much more than just a recollection of a place, but rather a journey into a world that is unseen by many. His photography expresses his insights and feelings to the world that surrounds him. His photography has been showcased and exhibited in numerous galleries around the country. Ryan has placed very high in many juried art exhibits and has been published in several fine art photography publications. Currently, Ryan is working on developing a new series of work, while teaching the art of large format photography and traditional black and white printing.
Achim Fisher
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The aim of my landscape photographs is to combine two ostensibly incompatible modes of perception of nature with one another: namely the perspectives of the painter and the scientist.
The classical landscape painter is interested in the picture as a whole. He engages contours, forms, and colors, in search of balance and a successful composition. When seeing a dune, for instance, he perceives its harmoniously curved forms and the play of light and shadow when the sun is low on the horizon. Were someone to hand him a camera, he would shoot images that capture the beauty, power or evanescence of what is seen.
The natural scientist's interest is focused much more upon detail. He is preoccupied with causality, determinism, and natural forces and their interaction with one another. In seeking to explain why things are the way they are, he strives to trace natural phenomena back to the laws governing them. Were we to lead him to the selfsame dune, he would examine a single grain of sand and would attribute the dune's form, the angle of its slope, and the continual changes in shape caused by the wind to the physical properties of the grain. Through a camera lens he would concentrate on structures, patterns, and surface qualities by dint of close-up shots, which would then in turn bear witness to the play of natural forces and their formative effect on animate and inanimate nature; and, by doing this, the scientist would render the reasons for the qualities and constitution of the natural world visible.
The use of large format cameras as well as a complex process of enlargement-production allows me to capture both modes of perception of nature in one and the same picture. My aim are photographs that evince two very distinct, and yet inseparably interwoven, levels: an aesthetic level (the effect of nature on the viewer) and a purely analytic level (the effect of formative forces on nature). As these levels are often located on very different scales of magnitude, an extremely high optical resolution is required for the fusion of both in one picture. In most cases, the 4 x 5" shot format is not sufficiently true to detail; thus, I predominantly use 5 x 7" or 5 x 13" cameras for my work. For the same reasons, I prefer a final enlargement format of 30 x 40", at the least. The use of "Cibachrome" photo paper lends the photographs a maximum brilliance that further underscores the images' extreme richness in detail. Thanks to the fine-tuning of a great number of technical parameters I have arrived at over years of work my pictures succeed in providing a synthesis of the two complementary world views outlined above: the painter's and the scientist's perspective.
Kevin Saitta
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I am involved in photography on a daily basis as I continue to learn to perfect and master the traditional craft of photography. With each hand developed negative and print, I fine-tune the subtle nuances as I strive for complete and total perfection.
Over the years, I have drawn inspiration from the disciplines of the great painters of old. By studying and understanding art in its purest form, it has allowed me a way to portray a scene that embraces often-unseen elements in a hidden and busy world.
For my work, I have deliberately chosen to pursue traditional materials to create and capture the images that I visualize as modern day technologies only skews ones vision by corrupting the spirit and perceptions that each of us seek in the world all around us.
Photography is a passion that allows me to portray my inner thoughts and emotions through the lens, to share with others what I see. The reaction of viewer to the artwork that I create is what keeps me on this journey of self-exploration through the creations of the world God has provided.