Grahame Snider

Artist's Statement

Light and the perception of light, has always intrigued me. Photography is a way for me to express what I cannot verbally articulate. My favorite choice of subject is environmental portraits. There is something about capturing an atmosphere that will never be the exact same as it was in the one photograph that I captured. What may be in the present when I take a photograph is not what is always going to be there. It is a moment to capture and remember what once was.
I prefer to use Traditional Analog Photography. I am intrigued with Darkroom silver gelatin processes with fiber based papers. While working in the darkroom I experience the feeling that this is where some of the most famous photographers of our time have been doing these exact same processes. When I began my photography program, I always wanted to enlarge images to extreme heights, but as I really began to interpret my work on the 8X10 and 5X 7 scale, I found that it made my images more intimate.
I once was asked what equipment did I use for my projects and my response was –my eyes. My eyes are my equipment to see the innermost workings of life and capture it but for a moment in time to tell it’s story.

In my artwork I see the obstacles that I have had to overcome during the time the work was produced as well as how my mood and enthusiasm influenced my art during periods in my life. The concrete, repetitive nature of the use of traditional techniques frees my imagination and provides many opportunities for continuous growth to influence my art. Likewise I want to influence others to pursue the arts, not only as an outlet for creative energy to be shared with others, but as a tool that can show someone something that they didn’t know about themselves.