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... Take pictures... Lots of memories... My father used to do black and white photos, and as far as I can remember, he always  had his camera with him, but he never had the drive to actually do something with the images he was creating. It was only a hobby. Magical though. I can never forget the  moments when the shades were slowly appearing on the white paper soaked in the developer, and rushing to fix it just at the right moment. The red light and the smell of that tiny dark room are still deeply engraved in me. Those were the old days. Now, with my digital camera, and a printer, I mostly do color photos. Most often, in the images that attract me, I see paintings more than just photos. In fact, I tend to mix the media right in my head before I take a shot.
For most photographers this might sound unorthodox, and probably many, if not all, would disapprove, but I believe that looking strictly one way, be it photography, or paintings, or any kind of artistic creation is kind of limiting. This comes from significant understanding  of many media, as hopefully shows in this gallery, and each and every one can only benefit the other.
However, with today's accessibility of digital media to a very wide user pool, it makes it harder to create images that will have a lasting effect on people. Everybody seams to believe they can produce beautiful images. Many can, occasionally. Only some can do it all the time. It's a challenge in many ways bigger than ever. I believe I make it even harder by refusing to use full editing capabilities of digital applications. This, of course, does not diminish the importance and capabilities of the opposite approach. Everybody should use what best fits his/her personality and creative expression.
To me, photography is still a document of our reality. This reality contains everything that we could imagine creatively, and there is no reason to change it digitally or in any other way. We must be able to see it, to recognize what we are looking for - that's what makes us photographers, what makes us different from a casual user who occasionally gets a really good picture. With our creativity and a trained eye (trained, over time,  by our own sensibilities and fixed rules), from this world we can extract our own.
There is a long way for me to completely achieve this, but I see the light and I'm going for it.

 

©Art Vrbaski 2006
"You'll twist your tongue, but you'll find your soul"