Mediterranean Sketchbook
Artist Statement at bottom of this page
more to come
Statement
My current portfolio, Mediterranean Sketchbook, is the latest effort in my Optical Abstractions body of work. All the images are from a trip to Europe in June 2019. This is essentially street photography seen and captured intentionally out of focus. The original images are then processed in software to pull textures out the remaining gradients of tone and color.
After decades of being concerned with sharp, clean images, I have been discovering a whole new world where focus is left behind and color, gesture and composition come to the fore. It has been a joy to experiment in a world I can call my own. This work is a product of the possibilities of the process and not of a pre-conceived final look, hence the variety of the final images. I trust my intuition and revel in the discoveries.
Over the years, I have often used the camera to expand my vision to see what my eyes cannot. I have used infrared film, long and short exposure in day, night photography, and light painting as well as focus-stacked imagery. This work follows in that tradition of exploration.
Will Gibson Photography