Tom Reed

My art is black and white photography, inspired by many, but especially by the
photographs of Ansel Adams, the plein air paintings of the Sierras by Edgar Payne, the
paintings of the Hudson River School, and the deep understanding of aesthetics by my
teacher, Dr. Shozo Sato, a master of the fine arts of Japan.
All are natural compositions. The medium is digital, each photograph bears my
personal “chop,” a stamp that is the traditional way of indicating authorship in Chinese
and Japanese ink painting and calligraphy. My prints are archival-quality giclée. I have
chosen to use basic, inexpensive cameras to stress the importance of composition in my
work. New York photographer Sylvia Plachy helped me to be confident with this choice.
The compositions are based largely on the concepts of Japanese flower arranging,
incorporating the dominant/subdominant/subordinate triunity, as well as abundant use of
empty space (in sky, shadow, water or snow).
The experience of awe is central to my orientation as a photographer.
Contemplation of beauty has led me to a yin/yang experience of comforting and shocking
beauty (corresponding to exhalation and inhalation). I am primarily interested in shocking
beauty--what people call a “moving” or “inspiring” scene. I find black and white prints to
be more striking and dramatic, and more readily experienced as sublime.
If we are presented with an awe-inspiring image of nature, we have the
opportunity to feel that emotion fully, and to inquire why we feel it. My suspicion is that
most people will then conclude that Nature is in some way sacred, or even divine. Maybe
then the dominant utilitarian view of Nature will begin to shift towards one of reverence.
This shift is essential in this age of environmental decline. I see my work as a
contribution to the very survival of humanity.
It is my hope that my images will bring the viewer to aesthetic arrest, stirring awe
and instilling a reverence for the spectacular planet that we inhabit and must care for if
our species is to evolve to our full potential.

BA, Rutgers University

My Book, THE GRANITE AVATARS OF PATAGONIA won top honorable mention in the art book division of the Eric Hoffer National Award.
I do not enter photo contests, but my photos have been selected several times to be featured on Your Daily Photograph online photo gallery.

My TEDx presentation in Home, Alaska was voted best of the event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB8L5a-P6NM

Numerous exhibitions in California, Alaska, Vermont, and online.
Permanently shown in Beautiful Earth Gallery, California

Back in college days, when I first felt the wilderness pull me, I was on the East Coast, at Rutgers, and I was fascinated with the stories of the virgin eastern hardwood forests that were written two centuries before me, in the era of Emerson and Thoreau. Among those pages I found plates of the paintings of the Hudson River School, and was enchanted by the emotion conveyed by them. I never studied the paintings or the artists, but I learned to recognize my favorites--Albert Bierstadt, and Asher Durand--and always had an eye out for more, like W.S. Haseltine.

At the same time I began to study photography and was struck by no one’s work like I was by Ansel Adams’. I found his use of black to give his work a power that I admired.

Much later, when I was building art shows in convention halls, hangars, and gymnasiums, I was exposed to the dramatic oil paintings of the Sierras by Edgar Payne. His ability to capture mountain light and the mood felt in the presence of immense granite walls fascinated me, repeatedly.

All of these artists’ work shared a certain drama, they portrayed an immense, seemingly untamable, raw and demanding courage if not foreboding. They conveyed a sense of awe.

Next, I began the study of Japanese aesthetics with Dr. Shozo Sato, who, after more than 50 years as a tea master, has a grasp of the subject equaled by very few in the world. I had gravitated towards the Japanese sense of beauty for years, but Sato sensei helped me to understand what I was responding to. And I found some of his own work deeply moving also.

Lastly, when I attended a photography symposium in Alaska in 2004, I met Sylvia Plachy, a famous photographer who had worked mostly with the streets of New York. She had an exhibit as part of the event, and I was impressed with her sense of composition and that she relied on that sense, and often used a low-tech, Chinese Holga, a box camera (like a brownie or instamatic). This confirmed and gave me confidence in my belief that “it’s not the camera.” The strength of a composition will carry a photograph that is not technically impressive. I have little interest in the technical aspects of photography, but I am deeply fascinated with composition. This sets me, with my point-and-shoot digital camera, apart from the herd.

More than photography, my art is to see a dramatic composition or find it (often an arduous task), record it, and give it the rich tones that help the image to communicate the power of what I saw.
I am endeavoring to create images that will inspire me on a daily basis, just as I have been by the above artists’ images. I invite the viewer to feel their response to my photographs and ask why they feel such a profound emotion. I hope the answer will help foster a reverence for our precious environment.

wilderness, black and white, mountain, ansel adams, landscape, dramatic