Nelson Suter Art Society

to promote and encourage the cultivation and production of work in the visual arts

Greetings ~ Kia ora koutou

Artist’s statement

In our visual world, because our eyes and hearts seek, what would they say if they could speak? What captures our attention, inviting us to pause, feel and look again? 

My intention as a photograper is to capture and express feeling evidenced through the myriad ways light manifests form and texture, pattern and colour offering us windows to connect to a deeper appreciation of what resonates within us and around us. 

Metaphorically, good photographers are visual poets. Beautiful images speak to our hearts and minds, resonating with our core nature. What the eye appreciates, mirrors what’s inside us. Consciously or unconsciously, we innately seek things that reflect who we are, and what we perceive and believe is of value. 

In a world of layered meaning, individual perception defines what we are drawn to. It confirms Anais Nin’s quote (French-American writer, 1903-77) 

‘We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.’

In this sense, photography provides a bridge, inviting and connecting us with our inner, true nature. I seek to bring the natural world, particularly from our local area, into homes and workplaces where it can make striking, memorable statements, feeding a love of beauty in life.  

I know the natural world stimulates recognition of archetypal forms that resonate at a core level in the human psyche … the harmonious balance in flowers, symmetry in trees, growth spirals in shells, wave forms in ocean, sand and sky, and random abstractions that seem elusively to express some essence within disparate form. These elements engage some part of our attention, speaking to us at a more core level. I believe this is what art’s true purpose is.

Photographers see things that others overlook or miss. As an appreciative and focused observer, I endeavour to capture the infinitely varied way light plays around us, so others can celebrate it too. This is one role that photography as an art plays in people’s lives, serving to expand perception, and indeed to stimulate our growth.

Why do people visit an art gallery? Whether it’s to satisfy their curiosity, or because they are purposefully looking, or they’re in an open receptive state  and willing to be surprised or ‘captured’ by some image or object. In the end all that matters is the positively felt thought: “Yes, I like it.”

The unique images of Nelson I will offer for potential display in the gallery reflect all the elements that draw lovers of art, residents and visitors here  beauty, space, warmth, light, resonance. 

I welcome the opportunity to add to the ever expanding artistic vision the Society offers to the community.

 

M:  022 - 6281416 
E: dharanlongleyphotography@gmail.com
Facebook: Dharan Longley Photography