Nature in Black & White is inspired by Edward Weston's, Robert Mapplethrope's and Imogen Cunningham's still lifes. It is through this exploration of abstraction that I find the sculptural beauty in the natural world.
Edward Weston's modernist style and his passion love of nature and form in his still lifes.
“Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual.” – Edward Weston
Robert Mapplethrope's flowers and still lifes of timeless elegance. Arranged with his sense of balance and meticulously lit.
“…My whole point is to transcend the subject. …Go beyond the subject somehow, so that the composition, the lighting, all around, reaches a certain point of perfection. That’s what I’m doing. Whether it’s a cock or a flower, I’m looking at it in the same way. …in my own way, with my own eyes.” – Robert Mapplethorpe
Imogen Cunningham's plant photographs. Her floral studies were influenced by stark lines and were mainly of close-ups, as she believed the "paradox of expansion via reduction becomes vivid when one looks at the visual aspect of nature", each level of detail is echoed in the next lager and smaller level of scale.
"My interest in photography has something to do with the aesthetic, and that there should be a little beauty in everything." - Imogen Cunningham
Inspiration for photographing landscapes and rural life are Ansel Adams and Minor White. Ansel Adams photographed landscapes whose horizon are very high in the frame, giving favor to the landscape below. Minor White is one of the masters of photographic modernism. White sought to photograph things not only for what they are but also for what they may suggest, and his pictures teem with symbolic and metaphorical allusions.
"All art is a vision penetrating the illusions of reality, and photography is one form of this vision and revelation. . . . My approach to photography is based upon my belief in the vigor and values of the world of nature, in aspects of grandeur and minutiae all about us." - Ansel Adams
“No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen.” – Minor White
My love of wildlife photography is inspired by Eliot Furness Porter, National Geographic magazine and Jacques Cousteau's underwater adventures. Eliot Porter took up color to create more accurate photographs of birds. Soon he added other woodland subjects to his repertoire and became the first established artist-photographer to commit to exploring the colorful beauty and diversity of the natural world. "In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World." He combined his evocative color photographs of New England woods with excerpts from the writings of Henry David Thoreau, revolutionized photographic book publishing by setting new standards for design and printing and proving the commercial viability of fine art photography books.
"Sometimes you can tell a large story with a tiny subject." - Eliot Porter
In today's selfie age can photographs still be considered "ART"? I believe that it can and I strive to elevate my photos in the same spirit as the renowned photographers of the past who revolutionized the art of photography. Besides does the world really need another selfie of Kim Kardashian?