For centuries, Hammocks have always represented peaceful relaxation. To anybody who has relished in an afternoon rest while entrenched in a hammock gently swinging back and forth between two trees can appreciate this notion.
Last summer, I dedicated a week for creativity in one of my favorite places in the world, and using this hammock for my daily R&R moment, to catch up on a little reading, to ponder life’s great mysteries or to use it for what it was intended for, a nap. The tranquil and peaceful experience suddenly captivated and motivated me to start using my camera to visually document how this silent pause made me feel. Following my meditative time out, I took out the camera and invested one hour every day to create abstracts images of the hammock.
After the delightful and fluctuating burst of colour from the fading light of day into night, I explored the deep-rooted hammock sandwiched between two unbending trees. I anticipated to see deterioration in the material and fading of hues, but to my delight, I discovered a modest beauty that was accentuated by the arriving twilight of nightfall.
Creative contentment is influenced by what you are attracted to and how you feel about it. Yet sometimes the beauty around us goes unnoticed because it’s not obvious. The purpose of my abstract photography is to extract and share the hidden beauty found in natural and manmade environments.
For me, photography can be a silent, intensely meditative activity, yet, the result exists in a minuscule portion of time. If you think about it, added in the fractions of a seconds of the shutter speed, my 30-year career only equals to perhaps a few hours.
For the Hammock assignment, my inspiration was to visually document peace and quiet, by fusing form and colour to create movement and harmony in the photograph using high and low key colour as the actual topic. Warm colors advance and cool colors recede creating a push and a pull in the image that ultimately reinforces visual motion. Certain colour can stimulate moods of silence, strength, calm, energy, etc., that once captured can offer a mystical trait to the composition.
That said, it is usually anticipated that a photograph ought to be a visually truthful portrayal of the subject matter. I believe this restricts the photographer to express the sentiment of the moment. Consequently, I believe that the concept of fine art photography is not to document the subject as it is presented, such as in journalism or documentary photography. But instead to create a sense of balance between the technical, artistic and emotional fragments to produce an image that leads the viewer to see through the eyes of the photographer.
In this case, I am not trying to demonstrate what something looks like, but show what it feels like. My intent is to create photographs that capture and communicate to the viewer the experience of being there. Embracing this philosophy to inspire creativity and abstraction will intensify personal development and promote contemplation that informs, supports and compliments the overall creative viewpoint and deepen a pensive disposition.
When the light discloses the subject, I get inspired and I am obliged to compose an image. I enjoy isolating the details of a subject or a scene to the point of abstraction. I would rather make an image that asks a question than answers one, one that intrigues and arouses curiosity in the viewer.
The photographs that speak to me most are those that depend on emotion and observation rather than on “impact” or “wow factor” of the scene. When the light exposes its soul, I become immediately captivated by the opposing distinctions between my surroundings and how it transforms my perception and frame of mind. In that precise moment in time, I relate with the subject with appreciation and connexion which is the foundation that my photography is built on.
If my creations inspire thought, wonder or emotion, I made an effective photograph. In my work, I aim to disclose the sublime hidden inside the usual. For this, I need to slow down, be attentive and pay close attention to details to discover and close the gap between order and chaos.
Instead of asking what it is, determine what the art means to you and how it makes you feel. This creates a subjective and engaging experience that can kindle imaginative and expressive growth. I answer to the subtle quality of light I see to create images that are graphically strong yet gentle in presentation. The radiance and colour of light is what captivates me to capture images with clean lines and strong viewpoint.
Since the first time I picked up a camera, I tried to promote a sense of connection in my images. In this body of work, I wanted to separate from traditional photography. I envisioned “light painting”, the sweeping motion of the camera while the shutter is open to symbolize the effect of brush strokes.
It is my attempt to reveal and communicate the magnificent beauty, temperament and essence of natural light to "paint" my photos... in camera and in that moment.
I envision what I am trying to reveal in my mind’s eye and approach each photograph with a “painterly” mind set while accentuating composition, colour, texture, and especially experimentation. For me, this encourages a Zen-like temperament to the creative process that inspires a kind of calm frame of mind that intensifies within the setting.
The apparent theme of the “Hammock” photographs may be motion, but the implication is time. My goal in photography is not to capture an image I see, but to discover the potential of fleeting instants I can only begin to imagine. The finished effort is an answer to these studies - between reality and imagination.
My intention as a photographer is not to always make a comprehensive likeness of a scene. As a creative alternative, I look for a dimension, a character or a mood that eventually presents itself in each of the places that I explore with my camera. I seldom have a destination; the process is the objective and is where the photograph will emerge.
The intent is to merge form and colour either beside each other or distancing them to create harmony that contributes to the overall movement in the image. This continuous movement can be interpreted as visual sound, like a melody is to meditation… There is a certain comfort in that, a comfort I truly embrace.
