Artist Statement

Photographing is a voyage of discovery. I try to mindfully perceive the space of the location I've come to explore, objects in that space and their passage through time—almost as if I were seeing them for the first time. This kind of perception is a meditative experience, a state of mind, an openness to the possibilities.

I've been a serious photographer for many years. But it wasn't until the late 1990's that I began to accumulate a body of work that achieved the visual resonance that I was seeking. This work is exclusively in color and uses the forms, patterns, textures and movements of the natural world as a palette to produce new insights into what I call the "unseen world". What is the unseen world? We tend to travel through life with unseeing eyes. We limit our visual perceptions by imposing a layer of abstraction upon our visual experience, filtering it and placing it within our mental framework as an idealized perception and linking it to familiar memories. In contrast, I attempt to observe the unseen world and find relationships of form, color, light and texture that are overlooked by the casual observer and to incorporate them into a compelling visual communication.

I produce large color prints that often challenge the viewer to identify the subject matter. They may seem foreign yet strangely familiar at the same time. They often feature forms and colors that are sensual and visually alluring. Other recurring themes throughout my work are abstraction, reflection, counterpoint, movement through time, cycles, ambiguity of scale and a sense of mystery.

 

Bruce Hodge Photographic Art