January 2014
Artist’s Statement
One of my habits is to try and create interesting photographs no matter where I find myself. I think “there’s a picture here somewhere” and set myself to looking. That’s the spirit that gets me started on most of my disparate projects.
In 2010, two of my boys were on our local swim team and, finding myself growing restless at the weekly four-hour swim meets, I decided to start creating portraits of the children. Using film and a large Mamiya camera, I set up a small daylight studio and then began asking parents to bring their children over right after they finished a race. The big camera gave a very slow, deliberate pace to the sessions; rarely were more than four frames necessary.
Children are almost never self-conscious when photographed, unlike adults, who tend to shrink in the gaze of the lens, afraid of staring and being stared. We all become conditioned to show the camera what we want it to see; I call that “The Face.” I think there’s a certain honesty and intensity in these portraits that lets you get behind the eyes, before the advent of “The Face.”
Biography
I received a B.F.A. in Photography from the University of Georgia and began a career in editorial and commercial photography in 1996.
My interest in photography started when I took a photography class in college, while otherwise engaged in pursuing a geology degree. In the pre-digital days, I worked with film and in the darkroom. I still use a Mamiya medium format camera in my fine art projects because film forces you to slow down, think about what you are doing and really see.
I’ve been selected twice to participate in the Atlanta Celebrates Photography portfolio review, and my book of photographs, Ribbon: The Art of Adornment , written by Nicholas Kniel and Timothy Wright, was published in 2008.
http://www.parkersmithphoto.com/
