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Curtis Hendricks

DamnPhotoArtist

Photo Art* & Small Literature**
* Computer-based art that uses a photograph as a base
** Short Prose

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And Then Depression Set In

12/24/2019

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Picture
OK, quick re-write …

What I’d written was:
  • I noticed this extra-large teddy bear hanging off a Christmas tree at the mall like a condemned man hanging off the stocks in the public square. Oh, I’m sure it was intended to look jolly, but as they hadn’t secured its large head it simply hung down in resigned misery. I hadn’t visualized the art emerging quite this way, but I liked the distinctiveness of the rendering. Functionally, as it wouldn’t move the way I initially intended for it to, it’s a reminder that photo art and lighting are linked, just as is photography and lighting. The nature of the work will run according to the lighting available, despite what the artist might have in mind. As I look at it now, I might have cropped it more tightly off the left, running the bear right up and over the edge and so adding a bit of claustrophobia to the work.
 
Then, not intending to create new over the holidays, I did anyway, and found some of the lighting I wanted, and cropped it the way I wanted. So, you see, another characteristic of photo art is that it’s really absolutely never finished. Of course, da Vinci held onto some works throughout his lifetime, continuously making changes or adding layers as he went, the Mona Lisa included. So I guess I could say no art is ever finished until the artist lets go of the damn thing. (or, as in da Vinci’s case, dies).

Symbolically, this work should be a reminder that, for most of us, the holidays are a time of great joy and reconnection with loved ones. But not for everybody. As society goes skipping down a particular path, there’s always some left behind. They have no loved ones or feel they don’t. There is no joy in their lives. They feel … left behind. Irrelevant. Over the edge.

Savor the joy but recognize the juxtaposition. The bear is out there.

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    Curtis Hendricks

    All my life I have had to learn to do things differently. To see the world differently.

    Art attracted me from the beginning. Almost every home in the tiny farming village where I grew up had DaVinci’s ‘Last Supper’ on the wall. I would come across modern abstract art in magazines and be absolutely fascinated by the colors and techniques.

    But there were no artists in my village. No one understood what modern art was. Or why it was. But there was an appreciation for photography.

    I began shooting with a 1960 model Agfa rangefinder fixed-lens 35mm camera and learned to use darkroom techniques to finish my work. Graduating to a single lens reflex camera I worked primarily with Kodachrome. Digital photography opened a new world. The computer became the artboard I never had; the darkroom I could never afford. I discovered there would never be a camera or a lens that could capture what I saw in my head – that, I had to learn to create on my own.

    I use the photograph the same way a painter uses a charcoal sketch – as a starting place. I squeeze out the unseen hiding between the pixels; the angels, the demons of my own imagination.

    ​Light. Color. Darkness. Perspective. Introversion. Mystery. Love.

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