I have been fortunate, over the years, to have had many experiences that influenced, shaped and improved my photography eye. I was a newspaper darkroom technician in the 1970s working for Terry Plowman who taught me a great deal about cropping, dodging and burning, and printing. I worked with Nick Varrato who had a camera shop and studio in Millsboro, and I shot with Kevin Fleming for quite a few years as well. I judged photography contests for Coastal Camera Club for decades, often being asked to judge the contest for grand prize of the year numerous times. Every time I judged for the club I stood before the photographers whose work I had judged to explain my reasons for the way I scored their work. This process required that I think deeply about the many elements of a photograph; light and shadow, subject chosen (of course), proper exposure and focus, use of depth of field and cropping to cast the subject in the best way to relate whaat the photographer wanted us to see and feel, and, perhaps most important to me, the emotion stirred in me from the photograph as presented. My earliest attraction to photographs, the ones that spoke to me very early in my life, were predominately photo-journal work in magazine like National Geographic, Life, Look, and Sports Illustrated. In college I discovered more artistic work by notables such as Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter. My newfound deeper dive into photography then led me to Alfred Stieglitz. Steiglitz seceded (look up Photo-Seccession) from other photographers and photography whose work was purely documentary at that time. He saw photography as art, or at least the possibility that a camera can produce images that emotionally connect with people. This was in the early 1900s, very early on in the history of photography. His art gallery in New York, 291, was open from 1905-1917 and was a major influence in presenting photographic art. I have enjoyed taking pictures since I was probably 8 or 9 years old when I was given a Brownie Box camera. I view my own work as being a mix, sometimes documentation and sometimes art. This image is pure art to me. The original exposure is in color but it appeals to me more as a black and white, slightly abstract image that speaks very effectively about a three dimensional scene through its striking contrast of white, gray and black tones on a two dimensional surface. I feel this scene despite its very limited information.
