These photographs are examples of how I see the world and how I put my impressions onto a piece of paper. It’s the way I’ve chosen to show some of the visual poetry in our world, poetry which may be in an unnoticed back yard, or in a land far away. Seeing that poetry and bringing it to life as a piece of photographic artwork such as this has kept me busy for more than 50 years. (25,000+ negatives, and still counting...)

 

     I’ll study a subject carefully before setting up the camera, and if I cannot relate to the subject, I’ll move on... These particular scenes have affected me strongly enough to stop, recognize their photographic possibilities, and take a picture. A typical subject will take about 1/2 hour to photograph from various vantage points, and will yield about 6 negatives, from which one is chosen to be the definitive image for printing. My tools are timeless, reliable, medium and large format cameras and lenses, some dating back to the 1930’s. Photographic expression does not depend upon hi-tech trinkets.

 

I love the darkroom.

     I have had a darkroom in my home for more than 50 years, and to this day, I cannot decide which activity gives me more pleasure: taking a photograph out in the world, or printing it in the serenity of my darkroom. Each print is created using traditional film based photography; the images are created entirely in the camera at the instant of exposure and hand processed in a traditional darkroom using classic silver/gelatin photographic papers and chemistry. They are not inkjet or otherwise computer generated prints. They are not manipulated images; neither computer altered, nor are they photo-montages. They are real photographs of  real places, honestly displaying real natural events, real places in our world, and the works of real people, past and present.

 

Simple pleasures.

    It gives me pleasure to know that you are pleased with these photographs, (although, I also thank you for your financial support). Each picture has a story...  

I have lots of stories to tell... and I suspect that they remind you of stories too.

With one of these prints on your wall, your particular story is retold with each glance.

It's pleasant when a picture opens the door to the visual museum of our memories.

We both can take pleasure in that.

 

 

 

 

 

Reinhold Schable