Statement & Intent as an Artist

  

Photography for me is a whole artistic expression and therapeutic experience from the smells in the air to the sounds of nature or the feeling of the wind in my hair.  It is exciting to capture a special image on film and then share it with others from a gallery wall or a publication.  I am motivated by the "doing" of photography, just getting out and about with my camera(s) and rolls of film in my pocket and/or loaded film holders in my bag.  I'm motivated by the visualisation and interplay of light and subject summed up in the blessed opportunities to capture some of this on film.   
Photography for me Photographic historian Beaumont Newhall once said that, Over the years, photography has been to me what a journal is to a writer-a record of things seen and experienced, moments in the flow of time, documents of significance to me, experiments in seeing.  I can truly say that a lot of what I do photographically resonates with Beaumont's words.  Photography is a real privilege when as a photographer, I am able to enjoy the experience of the milieu where I'm photographing and then come home with some of those experiences as latent visual memories waiting for the next process which takes place in the darkroom.

I like to craft my images from start to finish. Whether I am working with my Toyo field camera, and/or one of my pinhole cameras, I try to match the format and camera to what I think I would like to do in the field.  I say "think", because sometimes my preconceived ideas are revised by the shooting circumstances or some other pleasant surprise. 

Finally, like Paul Strand, I hope my work engages viewers on some plane of deeper meaning within the context of each unique piece I make.

Bob St. Cyr

brsc@uvic.ca