James Slezak
Artist’s Statement
In 1970 I knew that I had some sort of interest in photography but I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant. As a young high school graduate in 1966 most of my images from my Polaroid Swinger camera were of my friends. I had little idea that a camera’s use could transcend the capture of youthful exuberance. When I bought my Pentax Spotmatic around 1970 I knew I wanted to do more with that camera but I really did not know what “more” meant. And then my life unfolded but my photography was put on a shelf.
Fast-forward four decades (yikes, that is what seems to have happened) and I am retired and have the time and means to do things I could not do earlier in my life. I was lucky to have come of age in the digital era and to have latched onto technology early on. It has been relatively easy to embrace digital capture and digital post-capture work.
I remember the impact of an Ansel Adams image, Moonrise, and how I felt drawn toward trying my hand at something similar. And my first efforts were directed to the outdoors and I looked at what was around me. In my case, I was very fortunate to be living on the north fork and felt that I had great beauty all around me. I now live on the south fork and again feel fortunate to live on the east end.
I came to the realization that there are many talented people taking photos on the east end. Portfolio reviews made me realize that I need to distinguish myself, to identify my work as uniquely as possible. So, I set out to explore what more I could do with digital images. I like to think that I am now more willing to take risks and explore post capture manipulation to achieve an artistic vision that is now just awakening. It always helps, however, to start with a great capture. But now I feel a bit like a hunter-gatherer who will put together a pleasing visual meal from the best parts of what I have found.
In the summer of 2018 I took photos of the water between the fishing boats at the Commercial Dock in Hampton Bays. There was little wind and the sun was low in the sky. These conditions provided wonderful interaction between reflections from the boat structures and colors on the softly undulating surface of the water. When I looked at the first of these images at home on the computer I was amazed at the variety of form and color. Let’s just say that I came back again and again and have a considerable collection of reflections.
Recently I found myself admiring tar lines that had been used to seal cracks in some roads. I just had to select the tar stripes and create new images based on these gestural strokes. I later found that Aaron Siskind had also been drawn to these “tar abstracts”. Of course, he did not have access to Photo Shop. Who knows what he might have come up with?
Another recent series involves the interaction of sky, horizon and water. Some of these were taken from the Shelter Island ferry and more were taken at Shinnecock Bay.
I created some examples of “juxtaposition”. The three I included for consideration for this series were accepted into the Long Island Photo Gallery juried show themed “Juxtaposition” and creating them was great fun.
Most recently I have been creating tiny sculptures of small metal parts caught in the magnetic field of small magnets.