Artist Statement
I have a passion for all things artistic and creative, and it is my ambition to capture the world and stamp it with my mark, which is what lead me to love photography. With a DSLR Nikon camera I can steal a moment with the press of a button, and then edit it to perfection in CS4 Photoshop. In my work I strive to showcase the world in ways people sometimes don’t see at first glance. As I am a dreamer, my work tends to have a certain element of fantasy. And I love to capture the environment in surreal and vibrant sweeps. I found one of the most important pieces of equipment that I use is a tripod. I love to go out a night and leave the shutter open for ridiculously long periods of time until whatever barren light seeps through to illuminate the images in surprising ways. This keeps me up at odd hours but I find the benefits to be worth not sleeping.
My favorite collection of works is my portrait series. I loved being able to take people out of their comfort zone, until they stopped posing and started being. I found it incredibly rewarding to edit these pictures to highlight aspects. Many of these portraits are still pure-ist friendly, but I found that a few became more fantasy based, and have more of a “wow” effect. Vignettes are the most used effect for this series. The framing really highlights the models, and helps to bounce your eyes back in. It also has a way of creating that fantasy vial, which I feel takes the images to a different level.
I feel I am greatly influenced by the romanticism period in art. The goal for romanticist artists is to create pieces that evoke strong emotions. My favorite painting in this style is The Raft of Medusa, by Theodore Gericault. However, my favorite artist is Goya. He is best known for the painting 3rd of May, but my favorite by him is The Colossus. Goya does not technically belong to the Romanticism period, but the way his painting capture the world does ignite emotional responses as a Romanticist would. (Photos by Goya – http://www.franciscodegoya.net/).
mccoj7241 