FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

You have read many interviews with great artists and photographers (who are also artists). It is time that you read a bit about me. This feature features my photography shop - Past Perfect. I, too, am a member of Photographers of Etsy. I have answered the same questions that I ask the other artists who have come to this site to be featured. This interview also appeared on anther site by photographer, theeye, but I wanted to bring it here to let you all know a little bit more about me. So come and meet -




Briefly describe what you create.

I have discovered that with the camera I can capture a perfect representation of a moment in time and then turn that moment into art. I have always been envious of those who can do this with pen and ink, pencil, paint, and paper or canvas. My attempts at drawing have been primitive at best, but with the camera and sometimes with the help of the computer I can achieve the same result.

What mediums do you enjoy working in most?

Photography has take most of my time recently, though I work in a number of craft media - as represented in my other Etsy shop, qbranchltd. In addition to photography, I am a woodturner, a woodworker, a fiber artist, a leatherworker, and the list goes on. I go back and forth between them all and at times mix them together.

How long have you been creating craft?

I have been taking photographs since I got my first "Brownie" camera as a child (that dates me). I have had a camera of one kind or another for as long as I remember. I moved from film to digital when digital cameras became affordable. I have been creating craft for sale for over twenty five years - not photography, though. Turning photography from interesting snapshots into an art form, for me, has been recent.

How did you get started?

When I was in college, a long time ago, I took a photography course for a semester. I was taught film developing earlier by my father. Through that I gained an appreciation for black and white photography - simply because this was what you could do at home without an expensive lab. Digital images and computers changed all of that. Now years later I can print color images myself, and I can manipulate them in thousands of ways to get out of them what I want and what I want to express. Teaching myself the use of digital photo software opened a whole new world of creativity for me and started me on this path of art photography.

With the other work that I do, my living circumstances influenced what media I could work with. I enjoy working in wood, but could not do so in an apartment. When we moved to our house, I could create a workshop. Before that fiber arts were my focus as it could be done in a limited space. Now I have the ability to create a space for whatever I would like to try - within limits, of course.

At this point in my life I create craft full time. Two years ago I left a profession that I did not enjoy and with a great deal of support of my spouse started to craft and sell craft full time. When people ask what I am doing I tell them that I gave up a very lucrative profession to become a starving artist. But now I am enjoying life.

Where does the name of your shop come from?

Past Perfect describes the photographs that I am taking. I capture a perfect moment in time - time that immediately becomes the past - and the past is gone forever, except in that photograph that I have taken where it will continue to exist.

What would you most want people to know about your work?

I would like people to know that I get a great deal of satisfaction from their appreciation of my work. I am not really creating for me. I am creating for them. When I make something I keep it where I can see it for a while to be amazed at what I have created. I come back to look at it often, but I know that it needs to move aside for the next thing that I create. But I cannot just cast that piece aside. It needs to be seen and be appreciated. It is mine for only a short time (I hope) and then it goes to be treasured by someone else.

What words of advice do you have for other artists?

Know that your work is good and do not be discouraged by whatever anyone may say to the contrary. That work is a little part of you exposed to the world. As you are good, that work must be good. Be confident in your talent and always present yourself that way.

_______________

So please come and take a look at Past Perfect. I know that it will be worth your time.