who am I?
"...........everywhere I look and most of the time I look, I see photographs." (Bert Hardy)
This is definitely my experience. Unfortunately I tend to see great photographic images far more often when I'm without a camera than with a camera.......
I'm Gary Hill, a self-taught 'serious amateur' and occasionally paid photographer with over 30 years experience using film and digital equipment. I also have a PhD in visual cognition/neuroscience but no longer work in the field. Photography is my sole artistic outlet. I play no musical instrument, I draw and paint like a child and I write crap poetry, despite it being the only literary genre I've read for over a decade. Photography, however, is very much a science as well as an art and I enjoy both aspects equally, as well as a passion for travel.
Over the years I've found myself naturally gravitating toward a few central themes, primarily street and candid photography, particularly concentrating on individuals in uncluttered backgrounds, and images containing a lot of dark negative space. And more and more and more monochrome images. Nevertheless, I've come to realise that those images I consider to be my best work aren't necessarily the same images others consider to be my best.
I offer no artist statement. I'm not exploring the relationship between urban synaesthesia or mythopoetical reality within the realms of neodeconstructionism and subtextual desituationism. I simply come across scenes and subjects that inspire me in some way and capture and post process as best I can, according to my mood. Often, a scene or subject will immediately 'grab' me. I don't have to think about it. I just shoot. Call it a 'Zen experience' if you like. I don't. But if any of my images 'grab' you in some way then we'll have shared something. That's enough for me.
I've been influenced and inspired by numerous others. Many are either no longer living or are relatively unknown. I particularly enjoy the documentary styles of Bert Hardy, Jane Bown, Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange, Glenn Capers, Jim Mortram, Ara Guler, Walker Evans and Vivian Maier.
I don't do social media. Never have. It wasn't me that wrote that. Nor do I write in the third person. It sounds even more pretentious.
More images and occasional writings on photography can be found on my blog imagodiem
Over the years I've found myself naturally gravitating toward a few central themes, primarily street and candid photography, particularly concentrating on individuals in uncluttered backgrounds, and images containing a lot of dark negative space. And more and more and more monochrome images. Nevertheless, I've come to realise that those images I consider to be my best work aren't necessarily the same images others consider to be my best.
I offer no artist statement. I'm not exploring the relationship between urban synaesthesia or mythopoetical reality within the realms of neodeconstructionism and subtextual desituationism. I simply come across scenes and subjects that inspire me in some way and capture and post process as best I can, according to my mood. Often, a scene or subject will immediately 'grab' me. I don't have to think about it. I just shoot. Call it a 'Zen experience' if you like. I don't. But if any of my images 'grab' you in some way then we'll have shared something. That's enough for me.
I've been influenced and inspired by numerous others. Many are either no longer living or are relatively unknown. I particularly enjoy the documentary styles of Bert Hardy, Jane Bown, Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange, Glenn Capers, Jim Mortram, Ara Guler, Walker Evans and Vivian Maier.
I don't do social media. Never have. It wasn't me that wrote that. Nor do I write in the third person. It sounds even more pretentious.
More images and occasional writings on photography can be found on my blog imagodiem