Statement from the Artist Ron Hallam
In my work, I create images that capture what I see in the very moment I’m immersed in the landscape of the natural world. As I look, I see a wondrous synchronicity, a complexity, a structure, and, as these interweave, a stunning, intelligent and immensely creative designer at work.
The building blocks of light, line, shape, texture, form, pattern and color are constantly put on display in the natural world. In the words of John Berger, art critic (Ways of Seeing, Penguin Books, 1972) “Every time we look at a photograph, we are aware, however slightly, of the photographer selecting that sight from an infinity of other possible sights.” My aim is to engage the viewer, however slightly, in a realization of the praise I offer by recording the image of a moment of beauty that is on display in the landscape.
More from the Artist
I have a fascination with the moment, the moment that establishes the sight I’ve chosen to make an image from. Photography is ideally suited to this process, since the moment that is captured is singular and will not pass by again. A photograph is a record of a never-to-be-repeated moment of creation unfolding in time. There will be other moments and other times when the sights, as I look and see, will stir my emotions. However, any particular sight, captured with the flash of the shutter, is a unique and utterly singular moment that will never be seen again. Yet the design in the created world is such that the landscape never stops offering sights of wonder, sights worthy of praise and of being recorded.
The photography I practice requires that I get out into the landscape. I feed on, and work with, the desire to be both in and at the moment in the landscape when and where my emotions are stirred. Planning to shoot an image with details prepared in advance is a way to be at a moment when an image is presented. Often, though, a sight or sights appear that are not part of the plan, but are nonetheless eminently in the moment you are there. One has to be at in order to be in those moments.
The moments presented here are for you, now, to share in this new moment.
Gita Photos – Ron Hallam
Box 856
Banff, AB
Canada T1L 1A8