SOLO

exhibition

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Fowler

Christopher

UNITED STATES

Yellow and Black Photography Quote (1).p

“I don’t do Photoshop or otherwise manipulate images, aside from cropping.”

Three statements made by other artists resonate with my approach to photography. They are Dylan Thomas, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Joseph Campbell.

Lahaina is the former royal capital of Hawaii on Maui. This was taken looking back towards the so-called "Maui Mountains", the remains of the volcano that created Western Maui. The smokestack is a former sugar cane rendering plant.

The first, from Dylan Thomas, says that art is about telling the truth.

Lanai Shoreline

Color Photography

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Lanai is one of the Maui islands of Hawaii. The dark volcanic soil, the almost dreamlike grasses growing from it, the sea and surf were what I wanted to convey. I can all but feel the breeze blowing still.

The second is from Georgia O’Keeffe, says what appeals to us about mountains and rocks and trees is not that they’re mountains and rocks and trees, but rather the lines, planes, and textures they present to us.

They may not be technically sophisticated, but they are – or at least they are meant to be – deeply felt.

The third is from Joseph Campbell, who goes on to say that the task of the artist is to convey the radiance behind physical reality.

Georgia O’Keeffe had said what appeals to us about mountains and rocks and trees is not that they’re mountains and rocks and trees, but rather the lines, planes and textures they present to us.

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I don’t do Photoshop or otherwise manipulate images, aside from cropping and, when needed, truing the horizontals.

This is the floor of the Haleakala volcano on Maui. Amazing to think this is all volcanic rock with just the different trace minerals within it making the colors.

"It’s the task of the artist to convey the radiance behind the physical reality." -Joseph Campbell

This is on the northeastern end of Maui and best conveys, to my mind, not the tourist/paradise Hawaii, but, rather, the ancient Hawaii watched over by its ancestral spirits.

I don’t even use filters or a lot of different lenses.

Prize Ribbon (1)

Prize Ribbon (1)

Describe your image

This is on the northwestern coast of Maui. I can still hear the crashing of the surf, feel the warm sun and the tradewinds blowing by me.

Admittedly I do have a zoom lens, but my tendency is to use it in the wide-angle so as to get the greatest possible depth of focus.

This is from an island in the Åland archipelago off the southwestern coast of Finland where my mother's family has their summer house. This conveys the extremes of the terrain out there, the granite shoreline shaped by the sea.

The images are quite literally what came through the lens.

This is an example of how you can surprise yourself with photography: I was concentrating on the rock and reed and didn't notice the water ripples from--I guess--a fish until I got back the enlargement.

Those images may not be technically sophisticated…

A bit more inland, where, over time, the brush and grass have become better established. The rock, itself, has been there since the ice age, pushed into place by the glaciers.

I don’t even use filters or a lot of different lenses.

Two more "glacial deposits", which have been there (of course) as long as we've been coming to the island. The leaves are from birches, which, along with spruces and service-berries, grow where what soil as there is allows it.