Thin Breaths

new ideas - old and new images

Saturday, October 11th, 2008 | Photography | No Comments

I’m in the process of preparing for a show coming in December so I’m looking through literally hundreds of images that I’ve made over the past few years. As I do this I’m finding some gems that apparently I overlooked when originally evaluating them.  Perhaps overlooked is the wrong word.  I’ve learned that we see differently at different times so going back is clearly a worthwhile effort.  I’m seeing all sorts of magic that I didn’t see in the past.  Not only that but ideas are coming to me for book and exhibition projects.  These images of Melissa and Zinn are two that I discovered.

Melissa - Simplicity

Zinn - Softness

Tags: Ideas, Nude, Photography

peaceful

Monday, October 6th, 2008 | Life, Photography | No Comments

I really enjoy peaceful, calm quiet moments.  The pace of life can be so fast these days that it all blurs together and becomes quite confusing.  Slowing down can be a wonderful thing and really help to clear the mind and bring about those feelings and thoughts that get lost in the speed of life.

This past Saturday I was shooting with a model who also has some dance background so she was alive with energy and motion producing some incredible images.  There was, however, a moment when she stopped to rest; it was this moment that I was able to capture what I believe to be a wonderfully peaceful portrait.  

Tags: Portraits

physical art

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 | Photography | No Comments

I’ve been making pictures for a very long time and of course much of the time shooting film.  I’ve shot film of all different varieties finally settling on black and white.  I took a few workshops and classes, built a darkroom and went to work.  Anyone who has processed there own film and printed their negatives knows how labor intensive it is.  Ahh but the rewards far outweigh the labor.  Traditional film processing and printing is a physical process meaning that one is working with physical tangible materials and tools.  I consider myself an accomplished traditional black and white printer, which took a great deal of time and effort to achieve.  I worked extremely hard producing sharp crisp luminous prints. 

Along comes digital photography and inkjet printing.  Being a photographer most of my friends are also photographers so I hang out with them, talk photography and share work and ideas.  A few of them made the switch to a full digital workflow producing some very nice prints but I still preferred the depth and luminous of traditional silver prints.  I refused to make the transition to digital and remained an analog snob to a certain extent. 

In the summer of 2006 I attended a workshop with Joyce Tenneson in Maine.  The workshop was titled “Intimate Portraits”.  I met some wonderful photographers and spent a week photographing both male and female nudes.  Ninety five percent of the students were shooting digital so I paid attention to all that was going on and how they worked.  By the end of the week I was convinced that I wanted to give digital a try.  Off I went and purchased a nice Canon 5D digital SLR and starting locating nude models to photograph.  Oh I forgot to mention that I also realized that it was fine art nude photography that I wanted to pursue.

So now I’m all digital and loving it!!!  Over the past few months I’ve felt like I was missing something, like there was a void in my work.  I realized that this void is the missing physical and tangible things I always worked with in traditional photography.  I was making a lot of digital prints early in the process but for some reason drifted away from that.  Now I’m back to making some more prints and hopefully this will fill the void. 

I suppose that my point is that I really need the physical things in my art making process and images on a computer screen, cell phone, iPod or PDA just don’t always do it for me. 

I’m off to make some prints……

Tags: art, Photography

the secret

Sunday, September 7th, 2008 | Life | No Comments

I’ve just finished reading The Secret and I have to say that it’s an amazing concept.  As I think about things that have occurred in my life it is clear to me that The Law of Attraction is real and present in everyone’s life.  How or if we choose to use it is up to each one of us.  My choice is to use it as much as possible and I plan to return to the book often to keep it fresh.  I have been a serious believer of positive thinking for as long as I can remember.  There have been many mornings when I get up and the first thoughts are that it’s going to be a great day and it turns out to be a great day.  If I am troubled about something and my thoughts drift towards having a difficult day then that’s what happens.  Years ago I was complaining to my employer that I didn’t feel well and he said to me; “you can talk yourself into it or talk yourself out of it.” I certainly had no knowledge of The Secret at the time and I’m sure he didn’t either but clearly he was using it.  I would encourage people to read The Secret and give the concepts fair consideration.  Try it for a while and see if there is a difference in your life.

Tags: Life

going back to it

Sunday, August 31st, 2008 | Photography | 1 Comment

Stephanie Anne - June, 2008

As an artist I’m constantly evaluating and reevaluating my own work and being my harshest critic in the process.  I do believe there is value in returning to the work often.  We see and feel things differently at different times.  There are also times when an image draws me back to it.  This image of Stephanie Anne is one of those that I find myself going back to over and over again.  It just seems to get better and I enjoy it more with each visit.

~Bill

Tags: Nude, Photography

first post

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Ok so now I have blog….  Hopefully I’m able to provide some insight into myself and my art.  

The quote that I use “Real art is a thin breath exhaled amidst a struggle in the mind” I found when my daughter and I were in Philly on South Street.  It was hand written and nailed to a utility pole.  Pretty typical for this amazing city of Philadelphia.  I saw it as a treasure that actually found us.  We had been circling around the block in search of a parking spot when it appeared.  We were both very excited about it.

I’ll be posting a few images of my work here in the blog, probably only the ones that introduce new models or projects that I’m working with or on.  Check the links on the sidebar for sites hosting my work.

Please click on the “Entwined” page for details about my first book.

~ Bill

Tags: Photography, Publication