James Montague
I believe that all art forms share one fundamental characteristic if they are to be memorable: emotion. Art is an emotional experience long before thoughts or analysis. If you do not immediately feel something, no amount of explanation – certainly not this artist’s statement – will ever fill that void.
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I find myself feeling about the visual arts much as I feel about music. Like great music, I believe that memorable photography includes harmony and dissonance, tension and release. Form, melody, rhythm, dynamics, and, of course, tone. Some images swing, some are ballads, be bop, salsa, or avant guard. To the eye, a great photograph is “in tune”.
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My purpose as an artist is to compose images using traditional photographic techniques that capture the emotion present in nature, objects, and human structures. Images with the tone, and dynamics that I hope will be memorable.