PROFOTOS STAFF EVALUATION

At Profotos.com, we are always on the lookout for unique and inspiring images to share with our visitors. Most of the time when we review the work of a photographer, we find ourselves viewing images that have a similar look and feel of those we have seen from other photographers.

This is not the case with the images we reviewed in Martin Cullen's body of work. Mr. Cullen's image company known as "The Seriously Intelligent Photographic Art Company" is in the business of producing digital fine art images derived from original photographs he produces and later manipulates with digital editing software. Thousands of photographers and fine artists are engaged in this same practice, however, very few of these image makers have what it takes to create images as inspiring and unique as Mr. Cullen's.

What makes this work stand out from the crowd is Mr. Cullen's mastery of digital image editing tools to manipulate his images and transform them into works of fine art. One of the most impressive aspects we notice in this digitial manipulation is the mirroring technique Mr. Cullen uses in many of his images. This technique goes back to the old days of photography when image makers were experimenting in darkrooms with the creation of these mirrored images through the duplication of exposures on one sheet of photo paper. These days, we do not see a lot of these types of images being produced and in viewing Mr. Cullen's work, we find ourselves harkening back to the simpler days when fine art image creation was a lot more about the editing of the final image to produce a result worthy of being called "fine art".

In addition to the mirrored images, we also see several other fine examples of modern digital editing in Mr. Cullen's world class portfolio, each one of which stands apart from the others as a unique artwork. We see posterization and high-key techniques, distortion, creative use of colour, embossing, and much more in this varied portfolio.

Overall, we see the work of a fine art image maker in Mr. Cullen's portfolio that inspires us to see the world around us in a different way. It is this type of photographic image making that truly drives others to search for the artist within themselves to create their own masterpieces. Bravo, Mr. Cullen! You have succeeded in expanding our horizons.

,Martin J Cullen is a graduate of Law and Political Philosophy he is now a sculptor and fine artist. The images are a culmination of a project started in 2007 to explore the relationship between photographic imagery and fine art, they are by his own description experimental and unique in the sense that they are not photographs of fine art but actual art created from shooting images and manipulating the images using digital editing techniques. Martin Cullen is essentially a non conformist in his approach to the arts - he believes fervently in the philosophy of pushing boundaries in all facets of life. " if we as humans don't attempt to experiment we may as well still be gouging images on cave walls, art must be about utilising what we have at our disposal and moving forward to create new approaches ". Martin Cullen will leave it to the viewer to determine the credibility of the imagery and its value as fine art. Comments on the work are very welcome and prices can be given on enquiry.

YOU CAN PURCHASE ART WORK FROM ME at

http://theirishphotoartist.imagekind.com/