THIS MONTH'S FEATURED ARTIST
John Atchley
John Atchley went directly from a Masters Degree in Photography at Yale into 35+ years in the construction business. It is only in the last four years that he has had a rebirth of his photography career, partly due to the advent of digital photography and programs like Adobe Lightroom. His initial interest in the medium was born from a love of nature, but was quickly killed by two years of solid darkroom work, almost entirely isolating him from contact with the nature he loved.
“Now, after a very long hiatus, much older and, hopefully, wiser, I have picked up the camera again, trading in the 4×5 view camera of my Yale days, for digital 35’s, and putting aside the quest for absolute sharpness for far more abstract shapes and widely varied interpretations of the subject matter. With the advent of digital photography, a world wide renewed interest in all forms of photography, and the internet to share with, and learn from others, it is an inspiring time to become reacquainted with this art,” says John.
“Unlike a ‘straight’ landscape or nature photographer, in the tradition of an Eliot Porter say, who seeks to capture every, sharp detail of the scene they are photographing, I am always trying to capture the feeling or the emotion that these scenes elicit. There are no minute details, just broad strokes that hint at the interplay of light and shadow and the larger forms. These works show what you might see out of the corner of your eye, just before you turned to examine the scene in more detail. What some call “Interpretive Photography” or ‘Photography Evolved” I simply call photography. It is what I see every day as I walk in the woods near my home or on my rare visits to the sea. Many of these photographs were made by the use of “intentional camera movement”, ie by either moving the camera up and down or side to side during the exposure. Most exposures were in the ¼ second range.
John Atchley lives and works in Lakeville. To see more of his work, go to: http://www.