Kevin Sholder

Photography

The goal of my photography is to discover the unseen by the passerby.  This is much more than a simple click of the shutter; it is an entire creative process aimed at achieving the final print that not only expresses the scene, but my artistic vision.  I tend to explore and survey a scene or object long before I would release the shutter.  I continue to use various artistic concepts that are centuries old.  The various photographic tools and techniques I use were a part of the training I received from the Ohio Institute of Photography (OIP) not only in the darkroom, but in the studio or on location.  All, long before the days of a digital work-flow or anything called Photoshop.

Practicing and working on my craft in those early days taught me to be selective about what, when, where, why and how I would compose an image.  This gave me the opportunity to freely explore my thoughts and feelings on photography as an art form.  This was done in an effort to not only improve my technique and my perception about photography, but to truly discover more about the subject that was placed in front of my lens.

As a trained portrait photographer, I work to show the true beauty of my subject looking for the best possible light and view point.  To do this I may use different lenses, angles and compositions, being ever watchful of the subject.  I often will return to a subject on another day or in a different season for the vision that I have.  I shoot only when the light, subject and surroundings coincide with my mind's eye.

I then only select a handful of the most outstanding images to offer as fine art prints.  Working on each image individually, retouching and accentuating the subject for these few images in my digital darkroom till my vision is complete creating my art.  So that you, the passerby, can discover something that was previously unseen...

The digital darkroom is not that much different than my traditional one, with one exception, it doesn’t take days to shoot, process, print, tone, dry and mount my art any more.  I have the ability to work more efficiently now.  You may not know this, but many of the techniques in use today all have their beginnings long before the digital world and Photoshop existed.  By creating paper negatives you could produce texture on a print; a filed out negative carrier would produce those "rough edges," a sign that you printed the entire negative.  Even the more advanced techniques such cross-processing, solarization, posterization, combining multiple images to the simple techniques of burning, dodging and toning are all wet darkroom techniques.  Today with Photoshop I can now work faster, more precisely and more consistently.  However the end goal has always been “the print,” not the digital replicas that you see on this website, but something tangible that you can hold in your hands being able to enjoy the full richness and depth that can only be seen in the final print!!