A Conversation

Pat:  You’re right.  I thought we meant that this exhibit would examine or show how we felt about certain images we had made and why we made them.  Our passion, obviously, is the act of photographing. 

Bob:  I agree.  When I photograph, I look for something that excites me, and then I sort of “kick it around” until I feel that I have chosen the approach that best expresses how I can capture that image.

Pat: You said earlier that your work, in black and white, doesn’t have any color, which is why you use that medium.

Bob:  Well, I know there is color there. It’s rather muted, though – earth tones – and I am drawn to the highlights and shadows and work to find a way to complement them.

Pat: You mean you want to bring out the values that are there.

Bob: Precisely.  And I like the fact that black and white is really an abstraction of what we really see and offers a lot for the imagination. Your work, on the other hand, is all done in vibrant color.

Pat:  Sometimes, the color is muted as well – more nuanced or subtle – but I do think that the colors attract me in the first place.  But when I photograph people, I am much more interested in their expressions, their attitudes, their body language. I rarely, if ever, pose people.

Bob:  Yes, I feel the same way.  I like to catch them in their own space – in their natural stances – to capture that essence on film.

Pat:  I think we are really talking about what we feel is worth photographing: your quiet, introspective interiors and my appreciation of colors in a landscape, for example.

Bob: And the moments that you capture with people show their culture, just as I find that in their spontaneous arrangements, people’s own culture speaks loud and clear.

Pat:  Our passions turn into those gems we title and mat and frame.

Bob:  Yes, the excitement we feel as we capture a mood, a moment: that’s really our passion.