Artist’s Statement

Daniel Powers

The great cities and countrysides are bathed in rain, fog, mist and twilight. Solitary figures walk through empty streets absorbed in thoughts. The intimacy of these photographs take familiar scenes and transform them into an emotional landscape. A place to linger and enjoy the peace of a rainy day.

Photography is defined as a record made with light. It is a window through time to a moment that has passed. The great photographers, like Robert Frank, Robert Doisneau, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, mastered capturing a moment. Bresson called it “the decisive moment.” Whether exposing the image or printing the image, they worked with and manipulated light. Light was the narrow boundary through which they expressed themselves.

The new medium of digital photography has no such boundary. It has moved far from its darkroom roots. Once an image is taken into Photoshop, an artist is no longer restricted by boundaries of light or time. The digital artist is able to create color and composition that never passed through the lens of a camera.

Film and the darkroom are where my heart is. Using a Pentax 6×7 camera, along with Ilford high-speed roll film, I am able to capture subdued low light scenes and still produce wonderfully detailed and textured prints. Solitude when photographing is essential to my process and the message of my images. Camera work is done without the distraction of helpers or assistants. Each photograph is hand printed. The black and white photographs are printed on Ilford photographic paper. The color photographs are printed on Fuji photographic paper. Appropriate materials and display techniques are adapted to the print types, environments and requirements of the client or intended exhibition.