Shawn J. Hime

A Statement by the Artist

Photography has always been a passion of mine. I am very proud to introduce a new series of photographs from the Grand Escalante area or Northern Arizona. These photographs represent a lifetime of passion and years of work.

Even though photography has been a passion of mine, it has always remained a hobby because of the increasing cost of producing and making photographs. But, I feel that because I have always been passionate about my art I am able to work intensely on my work and make sure that the end piece is everything that I want it to be. I want to present the photograph in a natural way. I want my photographs to represent nature at it’s finest.

    I have and will continue to have a problem with “artist’s” saying that photography is not an art form. Photographers struggle with this idea.  I think that nature itself is art and I only present what nature gives me.  Even in photography, art is what you make it.

     I want to be able to show people nature in a way where it looks too amazing to be nature. I’ve had many people comment that some of my photographs look like paintings. There are things in nature that present themselves in a way as to look surreal and unnatural.  I love being able to take a landscape or a familiar area and photograph it in a way where people who know that area well can say to themselves, “Wow. I’ve never seen it like that before.”  I love to be inspired and inspire others. I am hopeful that my photographs do just that.  Thank you for taking time to view my work.

     I regret to say that my printing process has changed.  Ilford has officially discontinued the Cibachrome paper that I usually use in my printing process.  I have recently switched printers and found a very reliable and gifted printer that is able to show my artistic impression.  The process I now use is digitally scanned into the computer and then printed on a standard photographic paper and developed through a wet process, exactly like printing photographs by hand. I am also very careful and spend many hours making sure that I don’t do anything to my photographs that I would not have done in a standard darkroom.  I don’t want the final image to appear unreal. The whole point of my photography is to present nature in it’s own light and in it’s own way.  Thanks again.

E-mail: naturallightstudio@hotmail.com