1482C Sequence

See Barry Masteller’s work in WTP Vol. VI #3

construct photograph
on paper on aluminum
30” x 30”

Night photography has so many things about it that fit my aesthetic, and is the best time to truly capture light and movement. Since the light is limited, and I’m using a moving hand-held camera, I can’t expect to get a ‘picture.’ What I get instead is an image of long-exposure red, white, yellow, and green light line tracings; from street lights, signals, car head and tail lights, porch lights—the receding and approaching sunlight for its beautiful blues and violets, and any other accidental light source that finds its way onto the sensor of my camera. Drawing is the basis of painting and when I pick up my camera it becomes a drawing tool. Later I process the images I’ve taken; add and subtract; overlay with collage forms; add line and color, until I have an image that satisfies and excites me. Photography is different from painting yet it shares so much of the same terrain.

I live in the digital age: my cameras are digital, my software is digital. I can put down my ideas quickly and move on to the next, adding and deleting along the way. Selecting an image and finally printing it is another story. This can be a long process and not unlike painting, in its requiring of great patience.”