I attempt to examine relationships of form, color, light and texture which are overlooked by the casual observer and to express them in such a way that they can no longer go unnoticed.
One of my challenges is to become unbound from my own concepts of nature and its reality and to release my senses to the world around me.
Photographing is a voyage of discovery. I try to mindfully perceive the space of my environs, objects in that space and their passage through time -almost as if I were seeing them for the very first time. This kind of perception is a meditative experience-a state of mind-an openness to the possibilities.
Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, Bruce Hodge received a BS in Mathematics from the University of Georgia. He began serious involvement with photography during his college years. Hodge has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1979. He has worked as a computer scientist at Apple Computer, Adobe Systems and other companies. He was a principal author of Adobe Illustrator.
Hodge produces color prints via a hybrid digital process. He typically uses a medium format camera to expose color transparency film and then has high-resolution scans made of the promising shots. He then uses Photoshop to manipulate the image in ways similar to darkroom manipulation, but also in sophisticated ways that are not feasible in the traditional darkroom. Calypso Imaging, a commercial photographic lab in Santa Cruz, then renders the image data files. Hodge uses two printing technologies: a LightJet 5000 printing onto Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper, and Epson printers utilizing the pigmented Ultrachrome ink set. Both technologies produce archival prints. Photographers that have influenced Hodge include Brett and Edward Weston, Wynn Bullock, and Minor White. He'd also like to acknowledge the sage guidance of Charles Cramer and Marion Patterson.
Recent Exhibitions:
Ongoing display, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington DC, 2007
Solo Exhibition: “A World Within”, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 2005
“Open Juried Show”, Art Museum of Los Gatos, 2004 (first place)
Collection 2004 artist, Silicon Valley Open Studio 2004
“Open Studio”, Silicon Valley Open Studio, Palo Alto, 2000-2004
“Unseen World”, dp Fong Gallery, San Jose, 2003 <statement>
“Open Juried Show”, Art Museum of Los Gatos, 2003 (honorable mention)
“Images 2002”, Arts Council Silicon Valley, San Jose, 2002
“6 Photographers”, Keeble & Shuchat Photography, Palo Alto, 2000
“10 Photographers”, Photographer's Gallery, Palo Alto, 1999