tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62713729903721358142007-07-11T15:00:37.736-07:00spikemaffordBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271372990372135814.post-77954431146279893652007-06-29T18:59:00.001-07:002007-06-29T19:09:28.945-07:00<p> In my years walking the line between art, and commercial/editorial/stock photography, I have learned to maintain my direction by using artistic instincts as the 'true north'. The most successful images are always the ones I have taken with less interest in the content than in the form. I am not averse to using any medium or technology, but I don't like the term 'content provider'. I'm an artist. Even while creating images for clients, I look for the potent image, and not the one that simply shows the subject well. Composition and abstract vision is essential. It's an intuitive process I trust more than anything I have learned Technically or professionally. The image must stand on it's own.</p> <p> Travel is the way I get most of my best work. Any traveler is hunting the perfect moment, which is invariably a fleeting one. I love the sense of the elusive 'now' that one tries to capture. It's a game of chance, of waiting for the moment, of chasing shadows in the hopes that they will speak of fleeting, subtle things. I'm inclined to chance upon a place, a frame that intrigues me and want to hang around, waiting to see what happens. An interesting action or odd juxtaposition will capture my eye. I step back, always, from the moment and see the image. </p>spikemafford