L.A. Wayman III

Removing the Stigma...

A photograph is made in 1/180th of a second. Or is it? The value of art is said to be in the time required to create it. If this is true, the value of photography as an art is unfathomable. Subjects do not simply pop out of thin air unto the canvas of a photographer's lens. They must grow, experience, and become what they are at the moment of exposure. From a child's first breath to Abell 2218, a galaxy cluster we see today as it was 13 million years ago, we see that this media truly spans the ages.

Others may argue that it's in the actual time it takes the artist. I agree with them. After all, a painter can create a beautiful spring day, on a cold winter's night. Should the photographer want such a hue for their palette though, they must wait. The wait however, is not the whole of the matter, in the least. After all, the magic is certainly not the camera, nor the film. They are only the canvas and brush, to be bewitched by the occurrence at hand. It is knowing the specific place and moment, a worldwide event in time, at a local area, that everything is perfectly "something". To capture that time, one needs a desire, understanding of your surroundings, and good glass.

I am a photographer. I am not a magician, the enchanted are my subjects. I am not touched by any god or gods, but what reflects through my lens is. In a society that is too fast to stop and smell the roses, one should at least be graced to see them. I invite you to a world where the homeless are no longer virtually invisible facets of an ever-growing metropolis, and the sun is not just a bright light that makes us flip down our visor.