The journey began with a desire for adventure, and a staunch relationship with that which I call “the unseen hand”, that something just “beyond” the physical, and yet felt and experienced in the most wondrous of ways. Photography became my tool, and documenting “sacred, mysterious, and mythical places” became my avenue. Joseph Campbell’s books were my guiding light as I often stood on the “edge”, seeing life as a metaphor, and that journey “the hero’s journey” was also mine. Subjects considered Sacred, Mysterious, Mythical and Legendary have been the perfect medium for me, although you will find other subject matter here too. The natural world has its own enchantment and mythology, and has become a more recent focus as I spend much more time in immediate surroundings these days... Thank you for your visit!
About the Images: Most of the photographs here were taken with film, and images either scanned from prints, or the film has been scanned and the image processed digitally (I now shoot mostly with a digital camera and processes). The color works are true to the original transparency, and the black and white film processed as sepia prints for warmth. Images processed digitally are based upon similar traditional processes.
I love to work at dawn and dusk for more “formal” or “serious” work where I have all my equipment and use a tripod - this takes a more disciplined and thoughtful approach, but I also love to “snapshot” anything and everything, free from the weight of extra cameras, lenses, tripods, responsibility, perfect lighting - one camera, one lens = freedom... anything goes, its all fun and no effort!
The violet hues and saturated colors seen in the early morning and evening photographs in Egypt for example, are true to the original transparency - what a wonderful surprise to see these after months of shooting, carting the exposed film about and not being able to see the fruits of my labor until I returned home and processed my film. You can get amazing colors too if you are up early (although no guarantees from mother nature) and understand the latitude of your film and camera, the same applies to digital photography, not to mention how spectacular it is to witness the emerging light from the pre-dawn darkness whilst these ancient places are quiet and their most peaceful.
The Digital Medium: I love the digital medium,and mostly what I use today. I loved working in the darkroom too, but have no regrets at having moved on to a swanky wide format digital printer using pigment inks and fine art papers instead. However, I have no control how the viewer sees my images from their computer and because there are so many different color/contrast /brightness/variations with our computers I am guessing that the subtleties one can perceive in a beautiful print hanging on a wall with the perfect lighting are often obscured by the limitations of our computers, even though the image looks “right” on my computer’s screen. May our computers have harmonious settings ...
You can view photovideos with Patrick Leonard and Shenkar’s amazing and incredible music on:
http://www.youtube.com/user/itsalovelydaytoday
and the Henson Studio Tour with Wendy & Lisa’s incredible and amazing music, featuring the voice of Shenkar on:
All Images Copyright Caroline Davies © 2010
All Music Copyright to their respectful owners
Patrick Leonard © 2010
Shenkar © 2010
Wendy and Lisa © 2010
