Portfolio Category - LCEA 2013

I am captivated by ancient Chinese paintings. I was intrigued after seeing my first painting when I was 12 or 13, and I never really forgot the experience. Over the years, I learned more about the art form and my appreciation for it grew. The Ancients’ Views Portfolio is a series of compositions from the Chinese gardens of Suzhou and the Huangshan Mountains in China. These locations are magical places and over the centuries Chinese master painters traveled to capture them or were inspired by them. Being in the gardens of Suzhou and the Huangshan Mountains in 2013 was a particularly powerful experience for me as it allowed me to see what the ancient masters saw and apply their principles to my photographic compositions. I use a contemplative approach to see my compositions, which derives from moments that awaken or provoke an emotional energy in me. Thomas Merton called it, “...the direct intuition of reality ... a direct grasp of the unity of the visible and the invisible ... a plain fact, a pure experience, the very foundation of our being and thought.” Capturing and communicating this emotional energy is at the core of my compositions. I wait for moments where I feel joined to the environment, the people, the experience. George DeWolfe put it simply, “... [Contemplative Photography] demands nothing from us and nothing from the object. It is an expression of the pure visual nature of reality as it unfolds in front of us in the moment.” When I feel joined to the environment, it is a moment of serenity for me, which is a mix of happiness and mystery; a tenner throughout my work regardless of subject matter. The vision in my mind’s eye is brought to reality using a standard digital workflow that moves from RAW image composition through post-processing in Adobe Photoshop to commitment via pigment on paper printing. I chose photography as my artistic medium because it is a dynamic form and communication mechanism.