Phil Coleman
Phil Coleman
www.PhilColemanPhotography.com
Phil is at Studio #9 during the 2023 POST tour.
Masks are optional but appreciated in this studio.
I am a visual artist whose favorite "brush" is a camera. Just as a painter's brush is simply a tool needed to create the painting, so is a camera merely my tool with which I make my "painting." My goal is an image, derived from the scene before me, but transformed by my camera and in the digital "darkroom." When I click the shutter, I am only beginning the process of altering the "reality" of the scene, a reality already distorted by my choice of where I stand, how the light falls, and the technical details of lens, what is in focus, what I put in the viewfinder, etc. To complete the process, I use the digital darkroom to overcome the limitations of the camera. The final print should, if I succeed, convey a feeling about the world that was before me when I took the picture. But my intent is not to document that world.
There is in fact a long history of the difference between the original photograph and the final print that the world sees. For example, many of Ansel Adams most iconic nature prints were dramatically altered by him in the darkroom to come up with what we now are shown. So while I make many prints for which most viewers would say that the print is a recognizable rendition of "reality," they are not aware of how much I have changed that reality to convey what I really felt at the moment that I clicked the shutter. I am always alert for a scene that I think I can transform into a visually interesting print that, clearly or subtly, is an "altered" reality.
www.PhilColemanPhotography.com
Phil is at Studio #9 during the 2023 POST tour.
Masks are optional but appreciated in this studio.
I am a visual artist whose favorite "brush" is a camera. Just as a painter's brush is simply a tool needed to create the painting, so is a camera merely my tool with which I make my "painting." My goal is an image, derived from the scene before me, but transformed by my camera and in the digital "darkroom." When I click the shutter, I am only beginning the process of altering the "reality" of the scene, a reality already distorted by my choice of where I stand, how the light falls, and the technical details of lens, what is in focus, what I put in the viewfinder, etc. To complete the process, I use the digital darkroom to overcome the limitations of the camera. The final print should, if I succeed, convey a feeling about the world that was before me when I took the picture. But my intent is not to document that world.
There is in fact a long history of the difference between the original photograph and the final print that the world sees. For example, many of Ansel Adams most iconic nature prints were dramatically altered by him in the darkroom to come up with what we now are shown. So while I make many prints for which most viewers would say that the print is a recognizable rendition of "reality," they are not aware of how much I have changed that reality to convey what I really felt at the moment that I clicked the shutter. I am always alert for a scene that I think I can transform into a visually interesting print that, clearly or subtly, is an "altered" reality.
I live near Corvallis, Oregon with a view of the beautifully forested coastal range. A good part of many days is spent taking photographs and preparing them for prints. Years ago, I used a chemical darkroom. Now the digital darkroom gives me even better control of the final print. Sometimes my photos go almost straight from camera to print. Just as often, I make drastic changes before the print appears. But all the time I want to delight (or puzzle!) the viewer's eye with color, shape and texture, perhaps of ordinary things seen in a new way.
My favorite subjects are nature and the people and places I see on my travels.
With every photograph I take, my goal is an image that will resonate in your mind, that strikes a visual "chord" in you like a great song.
My favorite subjects are nature and the people and places I see on my travels.
With every photograph I take, my goal is an image that will resonate in your mind, that strikes a visual "chord" in you like a great song.
