I took my first pictures at the age of six with an old Brownie-style camera that was just this side of "toy". That was in 1973. You would think that since then, I would have discovered who I am as an artist. Nope.
Some photographers shoot only sports, fashion, portraits, bugs, birds, mountains, news, war ... the list goes on. They choose a subject that they are most interested in and that's what they do. The famous ones usually concentrate so hard on the subject matter they are most passionate about that they become known for their work in that ... genre. My problem is that I like it all.
Lately, now that I have begun to take my photography more seriously than ever before, this has troubled me. I ask myself, "How can you be an artist if you don't know what you're about?" and "What does it say if there is no unifying theme in your work?" ... "What is your style." I don't know the answers to these questions. If I try to define myself by genre, theme or style, I am all over the map.
What I do know, however, is that I try to find beauty and emotion in the world around me and to capture a slice of it, preserving the moment in time as I saw it through the viewfinder. That's my passion and what keeps me picking up the camera day in and day out.
I hope you enjoy my work and that the "slices" I present here in this site say something to you personally be it in the story they tell, the scene they depict or the splash of color they contain.
Andy Burkholder