A career in photography began several years ago when a series of significant life changes occurred simultaneously. As a result of these events, I discovered the skills I had learned as a management consultant, about the power and potential of visioning, clarifying ones purpose and, most importantly, listening to yourself and your heart, took on a very personal meaning.
As the passion for photography developed, I began creating mental images of what I wanted to capture on film. Staying with these mental images and continually experimenting with the technical capabilities of the camera and film, I learned about composition, exposure, lighting, and lenses. But maybe even more importantly, I continued to learn to listen to myself. As the creative possibilities around the photographs began to unfold, my own resistance to change began to diminish and my personal awareness started to expand.
Today, many of the photographs continue to start with a mental picture and I am constantly reminded of this by a strong sense of deja vu, the feeling of having already seen the images before. This sense of deja vu can occur at any time during the photographic process; at the moment of knowing there is something very special around and I only have to listen to discover the image, or when the photograph quite suddenly takes form and shape in the darkroom, or when the selection of matting and framing has been made and the statement is nearly complete.
This passion has created a tremendous appreciation for and a very personal relationship with all of Nature. And it has been this very personal relationship that has allowed me to expand the notion of visioning even further. I am now beginning to understand how to create on film or in the print what I have mentally envisioned, even though the naked eye sees something much different.
So what is reality? Is it what we see at the moment, or is it what we have envisioned at another time within the limitless spaces of our minds?