“photography used to be
a way to freeze reality,
now it is a way
to thaw imagination”
~jaron lanier

“is that real?” ask my friends about pretty much all of the photographs i post online. the answer is no. i have never seen a “real” photograph.

whether it be changing the shutter speed, f-stop, asa, iso, lens, uv filters, selective composition, brands of darkroom chemistry, cropping, or dodging and burning, one would be hard-pressed to provide example of a photograph that was not somehow manipulated.

taking basic image manipulation a step further, i often remove entire backgrounds, convert color photos to black and white, re-introduce selective spot color, employ filters electronically, combine multiple images into composite prints, and generally distort “reality” in any way that seems like it tells the story.

not so much the story of “what was”, during the image recording process, but more to the point of “how i remember it” or perhaps closer to the truth, “how i want it to be”.
i think you get the idea.