Introduction
By precomposing most of these images and allowing elements to move in and out of the scene as if on a stage, I have both a candid and set piece quality at capture. In fact, some of the images in Stations can look like something out of an outdoor theater Playbill. The expectation of a narrative drives the viewer to create one.
A Midnight Carnival
I try to view the carnival like a landscape photographer might view a state park. Inside may be five or six compositions with strong formal qualities. Often, instead of waiting for the sun to be right for a composition, as in a landscape, I wait for other variables, such as people and rides moving in and out, like actors on a set.
In post process, I apply, then etch away on a tablet, layers of aberration ( blur, shadow, grain). The viewer is left with just the detail needed to take the image where their mind wants to go. This painterly approach often has the character of Automatism and adds to the surreal nature of the art.
I've made a subset of large prints from the sires (forty by sixty inches face mounted to plexi), I call them, Father Sky. As the name implies, the sky plays a lead role and the images lend themselves to a walk-in size.