Michael Elliott-Smith
Louisiana
Artist Statement Submitted 2015
For many years, I photographed landscapes using a Mamiya medium format camera usually loaded with Infrared film. In 2004, I came to a crossroads, digital photography was having such a huge impact on the photography market that the film and black and white darkroom papers I used were no longer produced. I had been resisting the move into digital for the medium format had served me well but medium format, as I used it, was over. That same year, I received the Louisiana Division of the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship which allowed me to transition into digital.Digital photography opened up a new world to explore and this has taken me into the surreal/narrative. I began to combine images to construct places that only exist in my imagination fueled by personal experiences and emotions. Whither my prints consists of a number of combined images or just one, I simply present my vision of the world.
