Artist's Statement

I like taking pictures.

As far back as I remember, a camera has been a part of solo walks and trips.
I never feel alone with a camera as a companion, because the pictures will eventually be shared with others. In a sense, those friends are in my mind whenever I take a picture.
My first darkroom experience was developing X-ray pictures of crystals. I found that the strange diffraction patterns were scientifically beautiful in their ability to reveal how atoms were arranged inside the crystals, and fascinating esthetically as well. The details of our world look “out of this world” when viewed up close.
The scientist´s habit of "looking closely" at things has never left.

I see more when I am carrying a camera. It encourages me to focus on the journey, not the destination. When you stop to "take pictures of the roses", you look more deeply into your surroundings and, as my science background has taught me, the closer you look, the more there is to see.

If a picture is to portray more than just a documentary scene, the elements within the image must lead the eye from the point of arrival to the centre of interest in a natural way. But composition is more limited with a photograph than a painting. I cannot move a tree or rearrange seeds in a pod. My challenge and my fascination is to find the best angle, the ideal point of focus and the most effective shutter speed to get the one "just right" shot that captures the esthetics of what attracted me to stop and look in the first place.

With all that is going on, the art is to capture not just the scene, but the essence of the situation in a single image. My pictures let me share the beauty of the world that I see around me. Each is a permanent record, a reminder that even in the midst of our hectic lives, we all live in Nature´s Art Gallery where the show is constantly changing, and admission is free.

Doug De La Matter
August, 2007