Trajan's Forum • Limited Edition of 20 Print

The world around us is full of beauty in so many forms. But all too often, we become wrapped up in the stress and craziness of daily life and forget to look. Eventually, we lose touch with the sense of wonder and amazement that we once possessed. Photography is my attempt to explore our world, reawaken those feelings and reclaim a sense of connection. Fundamentally, I would rather make a photo than take a photo. Let me elaborate. These days, everyone takes photos - we all have a camera or phone with us most of the time, and there is an endless supply of subjects around us (just look at Instagram). As the technology improves, it also becomes easier for anyone to take a technically correct photograph, with near-perfect exposure, focus, and color balance. When you take a photo, you are using these tools to accurately document something around you. But when a photographer makes a photo, he/she is attempting to do more than just document what is in front of them. The photographer is trying to express a personal, creative vision that (hopefully) evokes an emotion in the viewer. That emotion could be the same emotion the photographer felt at the time, or it could be another emotion altogether. But the key is that there is an artistic intent that supersedes simple documentation of a scene. 99% of photographs that we see today are simply taken. They are literal representations of a scene. But just like a painter, a photographer is an artist and has the ability and the tools to make a scene better express an emotion or a message. In this way, the most effective photographs that elicit an emotional response are made and not simply taken.