Kathleen Shafer: Focus

Artist Kathleen Shafer, soon to be from Washington, DC, continues my recent project by writing about "focus." As usual, I extend an invitation to all local artists who would like to participate in this effort. Just email me!

Hess Plant, Waterfront Project

Kathleen Shafer: Focus

As a photographer I make many choices when composing an image. How can I arrange the chaos before me into an interesting image in the frame? How can I best capture the light and the color, the shape and the mood, just give enough information to the viewer while still engaging them in the movement of the photograph? How can I make the mundane, the everyday, beautiful and elegant? I rarely crop my work because I have already arranged the image in my viewfinder. I decide where I want the focus to be, and each element in the scene will move your eye around the frame. You will focus on what your eye chooses, but my decisions when composing will guide your eye in the final print. The tricky thing about art is, once you put that piece up on the wall and out there for all to see, it no longer belongs to the artist. My work is done, and now I am exposed and I have no more choices to make. You will see through your eye and not mine, and I can only guide you through the image with the focus that I have previously decided.

Gathered Bamboo, Silver Spring, MD

Previous Posts:

Charles Neenan: Tradition
Kelly Towles: Color
Ryan Mulligan: Originality
Matt Hollis: Confinement
Dean Fueroghne: Originality
James W. Bailey: Obligation
J. Coleman: Depiction
Andy Moon Wilson: Decision
Molly Springfield: Language
Bryan Whitson: Scene
Elyse Harrison: Motivation
Jiha Moon Wilson: Influence
Alexandra Silverthorne: Derivative
Jose Ruiz: Contemporary