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Photographic Art from the Digital Darkrooms Two people ... Two styles ... One common goal ... The creation of photographic art through |
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Chase Room of the Madison Library |
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Photographic Art from the Digital Darkrooms Two people ... Two styles ... One common goal ... The creation of photographic art through |
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Chase Room of the Madison Library |
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As a photographer, I am fascinated by the opportunity to capture the essence of a situation with a single exposure representing a fraction of a second of existence. Strongly influenced by form and color, I tend toward simple graphic compositions to capture the essence of my subjects. My simplified presentations sometimes verge on abstraction, revealing my feelings better than a literal representation. Color plays an important role in most of my images, sometimes strong and graphic and sometimes subtle or even monochromatic.
Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote of the decisive moment in time that gave an event its proper expression, while famed New York photographer Jay Maisel speaks of gesture in referring to the arrangement of elements in space that reveal his subjects. I make no claim to abilities comparable to these masters, but their search for the defining singularity of an image mirrors my approach to photographic expression.
The digital darkroom affords a degree of control that extends my ability to create prints expressing my initial visualizations. Digital processing can refine emphasis and presentation through the manipulation of tonality, contrast, sharpness and saturation, often on an area-by-area basis within the image. The digital file then becomes my master image from which the final print is made.
The black & white negative was the starting point for the traditional darkroom. Referring to the control afforded by the darkroom, Ansel Adams said that the negative was comparable to the composer's score and the print to its performance. The digital darkroom now extends that control to the color positive. I can shoot color transparency film, see exactly what the camera produced, and then use that to approach what I visualized. Although the digital darkroom puts comprehensive technical control in the hands of everyone, it is just a tool. The photographer is still fully responsible for artistic expression.
Tom Judd October 2002
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The prints are for sale. Email Tom for details.
©2002 Tom Judd
