When I enter a room, I immediately look around and try to find evidence of the actions that have taken place in that room. Dirty dishes, beer bottles, discarded shoes and open books are all pieces of the visual puzzle that a space creates, and clues to the lives lived there. I also think about our bodies in relation to each space - how does this make me feel, and can I communicate this feeling visually to the viewer?
The same technique can apply to a landscape, or to a moment of time captured while walking down the street. What is the history of this place? How have we, as humans, affected the space by the mere energy of our existence, and what traces have we left? Have we created a new and different type of beauty there?
I am attracted to this beauty of a space or place first and foremost- the quality of light and time of day, the colors and textures of furniture, walls, flora and landscape- all these carry importance. This beauty serves as a point of departure for me when making an image- it is the gunshot at the beginning of the race. It should, ideally, be the starting point for the viewer as well, beginning a journey through the image, which starts out with this feeling of simple, visual pleasure, but becomes more complex as one examines the image more closely. This is a way of actually extending time within the image- something like making a moving image out of a still one, except that all of the movement takes place through the eyes and the mind of the viewer. In this way, a successful image can become more than a moment; it can begin to create a different world altogether.