Artist's Statement
By Robert Ludlow
Discovering Digital Photography
About five years ago I scanned and printed a
few of my old color snapshots. The results were
so disappointing I decided to learn something
about digital photography. Within a few days
I purchased a consumer-level digital camera,
a photo ink-jet printer, and a book on computer
image editing. My efforts soon paid off with
some acceptable prints, and digital photography
and printing became my ruling passion.
Now, more than four years later, my little
color pictures have grown as large as 24 x 36
inches and are sold in several fine-art galleries
in Florida and North Carolina. I also make photo
note cards that are sold in gift shops, galleries,
and bookstores. Most importantly, I am still
excited by all aspects of digital photography
and printing, including the challenges of marketing
my work.
Painting with Light
My daily experience provides a varied and delightful
visual palette, and in digital photography I
have found a tool that allows me to share my
perceptions and feelings in a very satisfying
way.
Working digitally, I approach image processing
in the spirit of a realist painter, granting
myself license to remove distracting elements,
correct and enhance colors, and sometimes replace
entire areas of a scene, such as drab skies.
At the same time I usually limit digital manipulation
so that the final result remains believable
and reasonably faithful to the subject. Of course
there times when I get carried away, but that’s
all part of the fun of creating digital art.
At this stage my main artistic goal is to capture
my impressions of the beauty and richness of
visual experience. Often the apparent subjects
of my photographs are not of prime importance
to me. Rather, I’m trying to look past
the obvious in order to capture the visual qualities
that make up a scene—the colors, textures,
shadows and highlights, angles, arrangements,
juxtapositions, perspectives. The challenge
is to capture and print an image to take best
advantage of the interplay among those elements.
Of course if the ostensible subject of one of
my pictures resonates for some viewers, so much
the better, but I consider my true subject to
be the entire image--including the mat and the
frame! After all, I’m making decorative
art for people to display in their homes and
businesses, so it only makes sense to devote
considerable time and effort to the presentation
of my work.
Recently I read about a prominent photographer
who always refers to himself as a photographer,
not an artist, because he believes it is up
to other people to decide whether or not he
is an artist. I embrace both the humility and
the challenge implicit in that statement.
