Artist Statement


PhotoGraphics:  The Digital Eye

By Thomas J. Knieser

PhotoGraphics begin with a digital image that captures the light of an instant in space-time.  That photo is enhanced, filtered and layered until a new image and a new vision emerges.

Let me restate an old Zen concept.

Before I worked with PhotoGraphics rivers were rivers and mountains were mountains.
     When I worked with PhotoGraphics, rivers were not rivers and mountains were not mountains.
          Now again, rivers are rivers and mountains are mountains.  

Who says there is only one way to see the world?  Our vision is limited to the visible spectrum of light and maybe things would look differently through a variety of filters.

I revisited photography during the long, cold and beautiful winter of 2003.  I took my camera and my Jimmy and began to explore the Hudson Valley with it's brooding bridges, historic buildings and  glacial  mountains.  After downloading the images into my computer, I accessed PhotoShop Elements and began to play.  The images took on news shapes and colors until they either amplified or distorted the reality.  

Then something happened.  I began to see things differently.  The sky was not just blue but hundreds of shades of blue.  Snow had color, contrast, shape and texture.  Bridges became works of art through their structures and function.  And trees.  Trees are most interesting when they have no leaves.  You can see the fractal structure and their influence on the other structures near by such an benches.  Trees were not just trees; but still only trees.

T.S. Eliot said it best:
We shall not cease from exploration.
 And the end of all our exploring
 will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.
  (Little Gidding)

As the year progressed, Susan & I explored historic places in Pennsylvania and we wandered and marched through New York City. It is my aim to present images in a new light so that we can see things again for the first time.  Please enjoy them.

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