Ethan James, Everyone Underneath, 2008. Courtesy of the artist.
My creative inspiration for photography stems a great deal from film and literature. When I work with someone on creating an image, I believe myself to be unconsciously filled with flashes of textures, frames, actions, colors, and much more. Those flashes mix with narrative voices and the result is a collective of my influences and an innate desire to produce something different from what I photographed previously.
I do not have any set rules or guidelines for what I want people to see in my work. Photography is still an intensely subjective art form, even in the least complicated image. What I find most rewarding is having people look at the work from different perspectives and perceptions, and incorporating their own preconceptions, cultural backgrounds, desires and fears, and anything else that pulls from within into forming a personal opinion, either well-developed or a gut reaction.
Photography provides me a liminal space where I can unveil my personal center, that which makes me a creative writer, student of film, literary scholar, and a basic human being who is trying to impart something of a novel vision to others who appreciate the medium. I never thought I would find myself diving into photography at this point in life but it has so far been and will continue to be an enterprise gladly undertaken.
Conceptual, creative photography is the base for almost any image I work to create. Light and shadow, as well as color coordination, precision, framing, and quirkiness have become words I cannot go a day without referencing or utilizing during the process. I am a student (in academics and life) of the arts, and I would not have my personal aspirations in this field go any other way. It is my wish that the work I am doing allows me to continually progress within art and fashion. I have enjoyed my time in this endeavor from the start and I am always pleasantly surprised as to how much more there is out there to learn and use for experimentation.
ethanjamesphotography.com
