Alan Richards

My work may be classified as photomontage. It uses multiple photographic images, segments of images, drawings, vectors, or clips that are fused to create a single composite image. The images may be playful, satirical, or of a more serious nature.   I try to tell a story with each image. My artwork represents the human condition. It reflects how I view events and the interaction between people and the world. 

My work is primarily based on photographic images. I either take the images myself or I use found/vintage or other images combined with my images. The images are supplemented by drawing to bring the various elements into a single image.   I enjoy the work of Edward Hopper, Rene Magritte, and David Hockney, and  see my work falling somewhere between all three artists.

I look for the unusual in a person or persons. It's not whether a person is fat or skinny, one color or another, or any other physical attribute. It's a special aspect of an individual which makes them appear to me to be special. It's their human quality that attracts me.

I do not have a set pattern about how an image grows. I guess it is organic in that elements of the final image change over the time I'm working on the picture. Sometimes, an entire background...

My background is not in the art world. By history, I have a background in science. In particular, I earned a Ph.D. in hearing science and audiology from the City University of New York. I was a professor of hearing science in CUNY for nearly 30 years and had a private practice in audiology in the Upper East Side of Manhattan for 34 years as well.

As far as art is concerned, I was always interested. Both of my parents were professional artists and, apparently, some of their skills rubbed off on me.

My artwork is photomontage or new media art. It took me quite a while to actually figure out what to call my artwork since it wasn’t photography or collage or painting or drawing. Actually, it was a combination of all those things. A decade ago when I first started doing this type of work I wasn’t even sure if I could call it art. Thankfully, one of my patients was a former department head at Parsons School of Design. He told me that art depends upon the tools that are available to the artist at the time the artwork is created. As an example, he told me about the Camera Obscura that was used to create art long ago. Now convinced that my art was really art I pursued this method of creation.

My method of creation is not about simply p...

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