By Su Red...
My passion for photography was initiated by a passion for nostalgia and memories (there's also a small connection to a broken Corona bottle in Burlington, VT). Picture your first kiss with a special lover: Remember eyelashes halfway over chestnut eyes? Tendrils of dark hair that brushed your forehead? The formation of lips into a smile once the two pairs of lips parted? As humans, we make many, many memories during the course of a lifetime, yet we can never re-create one to exactly duplicate another. A camera holds the ability to freeze a moment in time, creating an image we can look to and relive some of those feelings. As a writer and photographer, I strive to capture the feelings associated with certain moments. It’s not as much about the image itself, but more about the feelings behind it. I could photograph a woman with tears streaming down her face, recognize her sorrow in that moment, and later look at it and sense her learning and growing from whatever saddened her. I could then picture her smiling. With my camera in hand, I am grounded to the earth in a profound way- I am savoring and capturing the fleeting moments of existence. Life does not pass me by. It’s about savoring the past, the present, and letting them be a part of the future. Most tourists photograph a familiar landmark from the same point of view as many others before them have. The idea they have in their mind is to capture an image of an object or place. For me, the idea is to capture what the object or place means. The difference can be photos that end up in an album, merely proving we went somewhere, or photos that we frame and hang on our walls and love staring at day after day. I aim to bring my perspective to the image, not just show you a photo anyone could have taken. The look in someone’s eyes, their body language, the amount of light or darkness on an object- to capture both joy and sorrow portrays the human experience as a whole. This helps me appreciate the ebb and flow of life and not be overwhelmed by negativity I use editing software to enhance photos, and I use my digital camera for precise images I can see right away. I use a camera such as my beloved “toy” camera, ‘Holga’, to remind me how picture-taking began. With a non-digital camera, I truly see through the lens and use my instincts. Sometimes this yields great pictures, sometimes it doesn’t. But such is any endeavor in life, a series of trial and error. Modern technology makes for fewer errors today, but I am careful not to become so tech-savvy that I forget or neglect the art. So, I still load film sometimes and shoot images without being able to see instantly how they came out. It’s an exercise in patience for me, as well as craft perfection. No matter what technical standards a photograph falls into, if it means something to me or anyone else, it is a good photograph and I’m happy. When you see my work, I want to know the thoughts that run through your mind and the emotion that you feel. I found true love in photography during a time in my life when I was stagnant, anxious with negative emotions, unable to get out of my own head. It reminded me how to connect to the earth and be at one with it, rather than overwhelmed by it. I hope seeing the photographs I’ve taken reminds you of something you thought you’d forgotten. ..