Artist Statement

One of my favorite photographers, Dorthea Lange, said, “The camera is an instrument that teaches people to see without a camera.” I truly believe this.

For me photography is almost as necessary as breathing. A great deal

of the time I am looking at the world as one long string of images; sometimes horizontal, sometimes vertical, sometimes wide angle and sometimes macro. My favorite subject to photograph is pretty much whatever I’m shooting at the time, though I’ll have to admit that macro has become my most recent obsession. I love looking up close at the eyes of a dragonfly, the inside of a flower or the bark pattern of a tree. On the other hand, there is an incredible excitement that comes with photographing the exact moment when a cowboy is thrown from his horse, the sun sets below the horizon or a grandchild gives me a radiant smile.

With the advent of digital I have also taken to experimenting more with double images, zooms and swipes, mostly in-camera, but also within Photoshop. So whether I am out shooting or processing photos on my computer, perhaps it is all best summed up by quoting photographer Richard Avedon, who said, “If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up.”

Contact Donna Sisley