“Other Worlds”

Since photographs are often classified by the objects seen in them, when you look at an image in “Other Worlds,” you might want to ask me, “What is it?” meaning “What is the picture of?” But if you did, I would be reluctant to answer, although it is indeed a picture of something. This is a photograph. Making this image depended on light reflected from a scene, so it is not a visual fiction like a painting. Nor did I manipulate the scene (much less invent it as Cindy Sherman or Man Ray might). Nor have I manipulated the image in ways foreign to traditional photography (besides cropping, adjusting contrast, and burning and dodging). I am reluctant to specify the objects that lay before the lens because they are unimportant for my purpose, which is precisely to make photographs, traditionally very representational, non-representational, so that they might strike your imagination directly.
Thus some viewers might see a bird of paradise, while others see a dancer floating across a stage, and still others, a pterodactyl. I hope you will use these arrangements of tones to make your own figures or metaphors or ...
Technical note: All these photographs originated in a 4 x 5 rail camera using Schneider lenses and Polaroid Type 55 or Kodak Tri-X film. I have converted the negatives into computer files with a scanner, edited the images using "Picture Window Pro,” and made the prints using Lyson archival ink on paper by Red River.
You can view other portfolios of mine at: http://www.smgilbertportfolios.com/