Additional images from the series: Photo Synthesis can be found through the following link:

About the Photo Synthesis Gallery...

Flowers represent one of the most universally embraced forms of subject matter to be explored by visual artists. Inherently possessing boundless varieties of aesthetic nuance and visual opulence, flowers and other botanical specimens readily lend themselves to some of the most fundamental objectives of artistic expression. Moreover, the diverse range of color, form, line, and texture that these objects manifest causes them to naturally adapt to the photographic process. How then does a photographer approach this particular subject matter in such a way as not to impersonate a currently existing wealth of recorded expression?

As a photographer who was initially trained in what might best be described as a “classical’ approach to the medium – using a view camera, the Zone System, and the western landscape as a primary subject – my approach to the series: Photo Synthesis has led me down a decidedly different path from that of my classical roots in the West Coast School of Photography.

Employing a process and methodology more indicative of painting and sculpture, or perhaps even jazz improvisation, the series: Photo Synthesis eschews pre-visualized and representational aspects of conventional photography in favor of a more intuitive, symbolic and spontaneous approach to the subject. Using digital tools and materials exclusively, the initial camera-based images in this series have been significantly altered, distorted, re-structured, and re-formatted so as to present a more primordial landscape of abstracted natural forms, fantasy-based illusions, and altered perceptions.

Photo Synthesis Process Description

For the series: Photo Synthesis (originally produced between 2002 and 2010) I employed a Canon EOS 1DS Mark III digital camera and 24-105mm, f4 L IS USM lens. The flowers and other botanical subjects were most often photographed using a relatively plain off-white background. Once the original camera images had been captured and uploaded to a Macintosh computer, those images were then altered and restructured using Adobe Photoshop software in much the same way a painter might use a brush and palette of colors to achieve a painting. That is to say, the applied techniques were rarely repeated in the same sequence and/or configuration for any two given images (much as a painter would rarely use the exact same brush stroke, twice). The process itself was accomplished in more of an intuitive and improvisational manner, rather than by following any fixed or repeatable sequence of steps to achieve a desired result. Once the original camera image has been exposed, the overall process might well be described as being more comparable to painting, or sculpture, or perhaps even jazz improvisation, than strictly to photography.

Note- A hardcover book containing more than 80 color reproductions of images from the Photo Synthesis series can be found, here.

Purchasing Limited Edition Prints from This Gallery

 If you would like to purchase Limited Edition Archival Pigment Ink Prints of any of the images contained within this Gallery, instructions are provided, below.

1. Click the desired thumbnail image and hover your mouse over the resulting image enlargement page. A text link: "Purchase Prints of this image" will appear in the lower left of the enlarged image window.

2. Click the "Purchase Prints of this image" text link and you will be taken to an "Add to Cart" page containing additional information and facilities to purchase prints of that image.

Note- If you are having trouble accessing the "Add to Cart" pages using a tablet, cell phone, or other mobile device, direct access to product specific pages can be found here.

Please Note- The products offered for direct sale through this website are available for U.S.A. delivery, only. For a detailed explanation about why such is the case, please click here.