Redefining Nature Photography

(visual poetry, nature, and human nature)

The artist Duane Michals once said, “We’re not our eyeballs, we’re our mind.” He continues by explaining how art should deal with all of the human condition, and most photographs are only meant to please. I want my brain to be stimulated in a gallery, not just my eyes. I don’t want to be comforted, I want to be confronted. I want to feel it all: pain, humor, bewilderment. I want old memories dug up.

Such thoughts have guided my urge to explore human nature through the manipulation of nature. In this work, I am returning to straight photography, however by altering the scene I am creating some sort of open-ended tension and confusion left for the viewer to deal with themselves. Similar to abstract painting, I look at each photograph as a visual poem that is to be deciphered and experienced on a personal level. I am redefining “Nature Photography”.

Selected Works