New Black & White images from Alma Dance Company performance "Womb Creatures" of May 5th and 6th, 2023.
Heather Robles, is the founder and Artistic Executive Director of Alma Dance Company. Heather was also the choreographer and performed. The five other dancers who performed were Natalia Munoz, Cecilia Mitchell, Roberta Samet Dr. Angela Fatou Gittens and Mireicy Aquino. The series includes images of every dancer. See People page 5.
Heather Robles, is the founder and Artistic Executive Director of Alma Dance Company. Heather was also the choreographer and performed. The five other dancers who performed were Natalia Munoz, Cecilia Mitchell, Roberta Samet Dr. Angela Fatou Gittens and Mireicy Aquino. The series includes images of every dancer. See People page 5.
Vessels of Life, 2022; Monochrome Photography Awards 2022 Honorable Mention, Amateur Landscape Category
Vestrahorn Time Tunnels, 2022; International Color Awards 2023, Honorable Mention, Amateur Nature Category
ARTIST STATEMENT
I currently reside in Brooklyn, New York. My preferred photographic medium is black and white. I find the creative process of visualizing, making a photograph and printing in greyscale particularly exhilarating. I depend on the existing light in any scene.
My portraiture of musicians is motivated by my love for jazz and classical music and my deep respect and admiration for the performers. My journalistic portraits are motivated by my support to specific social causes. My landscape art is motivated by my travels to four of the seven continents, where I have witnessed some of the most beautiful natural scenery our planet has to offer.
The techniques of my portraits of musicians are inspired by the performers’ intimacy with their music and instrument. I emphasize the details of a musician’s face and occasionally their body to transmit their emotional intensity during a performance. Sometimes I utilize motion blur to achieve the same result. I find Roy DeCarava's contribution to the art of portraiture photography, in particular with jazz musicians, to be especially profound.
The techniques of my landscapes have been largely inspired by Ansel Adams, Stieglitz' "Clouds" series, and Michael Kenna’s long exposures. Natural lighting, clouds and water moving at different speeds, contrasted with static and timeless scenery, create dramatic landscape images. By manipulating a scene with longer exposures, I seek to enhance tonal variations and complex textures transforming an interesting image into an unusual, unique and unworldly piece of art. The static scenery’s emphasis is enhanced, while the naturally occurring movement of nature adds its own creativity to my image.
My intent is for the viewer to travel into the photographic scene and absorb the emotions, energy and serenity the landscape or the person emits.
*. *. *. *. *. *. *. * *. *
The black and white photograph at the top, Vessels of Life, was created during my trip to Iceland in September of 2022. Black & White Pages 7 and 8 have that and 15 other photographs created during a plane ride over Vatnajokull National Park and the Landmannalauger in the highlands of Iceland. Black and White Page 4 has 6 more photographs from the trip, including two aurora photographs.
The color landscape above, created during an extremely active northern lights night is one of five photographs from that night at the beautiful Vestrahorn mountain. They can be viewed on Landscapes page 5. .
The slide show above includes award-winning images that have won thirty-two international awards plus four images that were purchased by the Fox TV Series, Monarch. The TV show premiered September 11, 2022.
The first four portraits will be a part of a collateral exhibition, entitled "International Identities" at the 2022 Venice Biennalle. I will be represented by Saphira & Ventura Gallery (www.saphiraventura.com). "Blow Your Mind" (Christian Scott on the trumpet) created in 2018 during an outdoor concert at Brooklyn's Prospect Park won Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2021, Category: Event Concert. The second image, "Jazz Bass" (Felipe Cabrera) was awarded Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2019, Category: Event, Concert and Honorable Mention in the Monochrome Photography Awards 2019, Category: Amature Portrait. The other two images at the Biennale collateral exhibition will be Swing'n With the Bass (2012) and Violin in Central Park (Susan Keser, 2012). The last two portraits and two award-winning landscapes, "Glow of Kirkjufell" and "Alien Invasion" will appear in the scenery of the new TV show Monarch.
The fifth image, "Glow of Kirkjufell", captured at Kirkjufell Mountain near Grundarfjördur, Iceland (June 2016) after a midnight sunrise won two awards Honorable Mention in 2020 International Photography Awards One Shot / Movement Photo Contest, Category: Nature and Honorable Mention in PX3 2020 (Prix De La Photographie Paris), Category: Nature/Landscape. "Glow of Kirkjufell was also, the lead image in the series "Unworldly Iceland", which won Honorable Mention in 2020 Neutral Density International Photography Awards, Category: Nature (Series), Other, The series also included "Alien Invasion", which was photographed in the WestFjords Region around two in the morning during the summer solstice; "Storm Over Gullfoss," which was created just as a very windy rain storm began to clear. "Storm Over Gullfoss" also won Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2021, Category: Fine Art, Landscape as a single image. The last photograph in "Unworldly Iceland," "Haunted Black Beach." also won an award as part of the series "Black Beach Art."
The next three images won two awards as a landscape series, "Black Beach Art": Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2019, Category: Fine Art, Landscape Series and Honorable Mention in the 2020 Monovisions Photography Awards, International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Landscape Series. The first image of the series, "Icelandic Sculpture" (also awarded Honorable Mention in Monochrome Photography Awards 2019, Category Amature Landscape, single image) was captured October 2018 during a stormy sunset, a breathtaking scene on the black beach at Reynisfjara. The long exposure emphasizes the detail of a beautiful rock in the sea sculpted by nature. If you look close it appears like many hands reaching out. The second image, "Afternoon Moonlight" was captured October 2018 around noon. The beautiful and shapely clouds were backlit by the sun. The thickness of the clouds blocked much of the sun’s light. It appeared to be night time with a full moon glowing. The white grains in the black-volcanic sand were glistening, as well. The third image, "Haunted Black Beach" was captured October 2018 during low tide as a stormy sky was clearing.
The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth images, were entered as a series "Costa Brava Art" won Honorable Mention in the 2020 Monovisions Photography Awards, International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Landscape Series. The first of the series, "Calm Costa Brava" (Black and White, my preferred version) was during a beautiful golden glow after sunrise on the beautiful Costa Brava Coast at Cap de Creus. The second of the series, "Pulse" was near the same spot just as the sun was rising and the last of the series, "Morning Light," was taken after sunrise at Tossa de Mar.
The fourteenth image, "Living Atop the World," won Honorable Mention in the 2020 Monovisions Photography Awards, International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Single, Landscape. It was taken from a beautiful tiny village at the top of the Pyrenees. Puértolas. The clouds were moving fast over the valley and the mountains from as far as France could be seen in the distance.
The fifteenth image, "Approaching Paradise", captured from a helicopter over Na Pali Coast in Kauai, Hawaii (May 2013) won two awards: PX3 2013 People's Choice (Prix De La Photographie Paris), First Place, Category: Nature and Honorable Mention in Chromatic Photo Awards 2019, Category: Nature.
The sixteenth image, "Sunrise on Fire," captured on top of the Italian Dolomites at Rifugio Lagazuoi in September of 2015 won Honorable Mention in Chromatic Photo Awards 2020, Category: Nature.
The seventeenth and eighteenth images are panoramas. "Alpenglow in the Dolomites at Sunrise", was created in the Italian Dolomites at sunrise (September 2015) won Bronze Award in the 2019 Epson International Pano Awards. "After Midnight Icelandic Serenity" created at Patreksfjördur in the West Fjords, 2016 won a Bronze Award in the 2021 Epson International Pano Awards. Truly a scene that was both exhilarating--double rainbows across the fjord--with the colors of a golden "hour" that lasted many hours. According to the new friends we met in the town, they prefer to soak in a hot tub to watch!
The nineteenth image, "Pulse of a Storm," captured at Circle Beach, Southampton, New York this past summer won Honorable Mentions in 2020 Neutral Density International Photography Awards, Category: Nature, Seascapes/Waterscapes, the Monochrome Photography Awards 2020, Category: Amature Nature and 2021 Monovisions Photography Awards, International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Single, Nature and Wildlife.
The twentieth photograph, "Black Bird Over the Bay" created in 2020 with my iPhone 11 won Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2021, Category: Special, Smartphone Photography.
The last five images were photographed during the first few months of the international pandemic in 2020. My partner and I were walking home in Prospect Park from a Juneteenth celebration at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York and a sax player treated us to heartfelt jazz. "Sax on Juneteenth"was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2020 Black and White Spider Awards, Category, Portrait. "Drumbeat of Juneteenth 2020" created during the 2020 Juneteenth celebration at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York won two awards: 2021 Monovisions Photography Awards, International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Single, Photojournalism and Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2021, Category: Event, Social Cause.
The last three images, are part of a nine-image series, which won three awards as a series, "7pm Appreciation of Frontline Heroes in Brooklyn, NY": 3rd Place in the International Photography Awards 2020, Category: Event, Social Cause; Honorable Mention in the 2020 Monovisions Photography Awards International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Series, People and Honorable Mention in the PX3 2020 (Prix De La Photographie Paris), Category: Street Photography, Special. These images are especially important to me. The first image of the series, entitled "Hope and Despair," was awarded a single-image Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2020, Category: People, Portrait and Honorable Mention in the 2020 Black and White Spider Awards, Category, Photojournalism. It captures a healthcare worker, who came out right at 7pm and, wearing all of their PPE just looked up and reached for the sky as one colleague put a comforting hand on their shoulder. The second, "Difficult Day", is of a woman (I met Angela a few weeks later), who clearly had a difficult day. I was especially touched by this image. It was awarded a single-image Honorable Mention in the 2020 Black and White Spider Awards, Category, Photojournalism. The third, "Gracias," was a of celebration of the healthcare workers with the local fire fighters in mid-April 2020. I went back a few weeks later and gifted a 24" x 16" fine print of an image, "7pm Appreciation", reflecting how much the neighborhood appreciates the heroic work everyone in hospitals in Brooklyn and throughout the world is doing to save lives threatened by the global pandemic. They were risking their lives every day; all we can do is show our appreciation and respect for what they do. In 2021, I gifted the entire series to the hospital workers at New York Presbyterian.
***I encourage all of those interested to leave comments/posts on my blog page.
My portraiture of musicians is motivated by my love for jazz and classical music and my deep respect and admiration for the performers. My journalistic portraits are motivated by my support to specific social causes. My landscape art is motivated by my travels to four of the seven continents, where I have witnessed some of the most beautiful natural scenery our planet has to offer.
The techniques of my portraits of musicians are inspired by the performers’ intimacy with their music and instrument. I emphasize the details of a musician’s face and occasionally their body to transmit their emotional intensity during a performance. Sometimes I utilize motion blur to achieve the same result. I find Roy DeCarava's contribution to the art of portraiture photography, in particular with jazz musicians, to be especially profound.
The techniques of my landscapes have been largely inspired by Ansel Adams, Stieglitz' "Clouds" series, and Michael Kenna’s long exposures. Natural lighting, clouds and water moving at different speeds, contrasted with static and timeless scenery, create dramatic landscape images. By manipulating a scene with longer exposures, I seek to enhance tonal variations and complex textures transforming an interesting image into an unusual, unique and unworldly piece of art. The static scenery’s emphasis is enhanced, while the naturally occurring movement of nature adds its own creativity to my image.
My intent is for the viewer to travel into the photographic scene and absorb the emotions, energy and serenity the landscape or the person emits.
*. *. *. *. *. *. *. * *. *
The black and white photograph at the top, Vessels of Life, was created during my trip to Iceland in September of 2022. Black & White Pages 7 and 8 have that and 15 other photographs created during a plane ride over Vatnajokull National Park and the Landmannalauger in the highlands of Iceland. Black and White Page 4 has 6 more photographs from the trip, including two aurora photographs.
The color landscape above, created during an extremely active northern lights night is one of five photographs from that night at the beautiful Vestrahorn mountain. They can be viewed on Landscapes page 5. .
The slide show above includes award-winning images that have won thirty-two international awards plus four images that were purchased by the Fox TV Series, Monarch. The TV show premiered September 11, 2022.
The first four portraits will be a part of a collateral exhibition, entitled "International Identities" at the 2022 Venice Biennalle. I will be represented by Saphira & Ventura Gallery (www.saphiraventura.com). "Blow Your Mind" (Christian Scott on the trumpet) created in 2018 during an outdoor concert at Brooklyn's Prospect Park won Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2021, Category: Event Concert. The second image, "Jazz Bass" (Felipe Cabrera) was awarded Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2019, Category: Event, Concert and Honorable Mention in the Monochrome Photography Awards 2019, Category: Amature Portrait. The other two images at the Biennale collateral exhibition will be Swing'n With the Bass (2012) and Violin in Central Park (Susan Keser, 2012). The last two portraits and two award-winning landscapes, "Glow of Kirkjufell" and "Alien Invasion" will appear in the scenery of the new TV show Monarch.
The fifth image, "Glow of Kirkjufell", captured at Kirkjufell Mountain near Grundarfjördur, Iceland (June 2016) after a midnight sunrise won two awards Honorable Mention in 2020 International Photography Awards One Shot / Movement Photo Contest, Category: Nature and Honorable Mention in PX3 2020 (Prix De La Photographie Paris), Category: Nature/Landscape. "Glow of Kirkjufell was also, the lead image in the series "Unworldly Iceland", which won Honorable Mention in 2020 Neutral Density International Photography Awards, Category: Nature (Series), Other, The series also included "Alien Invasion", which was photographed in the WestFjords Region around two in the morning during the summer solstice; "Storm Over Gullfoss," which was created just as a very windy rain storm began to clear. "Storm Over Gullfoss" also won Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2021, Category: Fine Art, Landscape as a single image. The last photograph in "Unworldly Iceland," "Haunted Black Beach." also won an award as part of the series "Black Beach Art."
The next three images won two awards as a landscape series, "Black Beach Art": Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2019, Category: Fine Art, Landscape Series and Honorable Mention in the 2020 Monovisions Photography Awards, International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Landscape Series. The first image of the series, "Icelandic Sculpture" (also awarded Honorable Mention in Monochrome Photography Awards 2019, Category Amature Landscape, single image) was captured October 2018 during a stormy sunset, a breathtaking scene on the black beach at Reynisfjara. The long exposure emphasizes the detail of a beautiful rock in the sea sculpted by nature. If you look close it appears like many hands reaching out. The second image, "Afternoon Moonlight" was captured October 2018 around noon. The beautiful and shapely clouds were backlit by the sun. The thickness of the clouds blocked much of the sun’s light. It appeared to be night time with a full moon glowing. The white grains in the black-volcanic sand were glistening, as well. The third image, "Haunted Black Beach" was captured October 2018 during low tide as a stormy sky was clearing.
The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth images, were entered as a series "Costa Brava Art" won Honorable Mention in the 2020 Monovisions Photography Awards, International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Landscape Series. The first of the series, "Calm Costa Brava" (Black and White, my preferred version) was during a beautiful golden glow after sunrise on the beautiful Costa Brava Coast at Cap de Creus. The second of the series, "Pulse" was near the same spot just as the sun was rising and the last of the series, "Morning Light," was taken after sunrise at Tossa de Mar.
The fourteenth image, "Living Atop the World," won Honorable Mention in the 2020 Monovisions Photography Awards, International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Single, Landscape. It was taken from a beautiful tiny village at the top of the Pyrenees. Puértolas. The clouds were moving fast over the valley and the mountains from as far as France could be seen in the distance.
The fifteenth image, "Approaching Paradise", captured from a helicopter over Na Pali Coast in Kauai, Hawaii (May 2013) won two awards: PX3 2013 People's Choice (Prix De La Photographie Paris), First Place, Category: Nature and Honorable Mention in Chromatic Photo Awards 2019, Category: Nature.
The sixteenth image, "Sunrise on Fire," captured on top of the Italian Dolomites at Rifugio Lagazuoi in September of 2015 won Honorable Mention in Chromatic Photo Awards 2020, Category: Nature.
The seventeenth and eighteenth images are panoramas. "Alpenglow in the Dolomites at Sunrise", was created in the Italian Dolomites at sunrise (September 2015) won Bronze Award in the 2019 Epson International Pano Awards. "After Midnight Icelandic Serenity" created at Patreksfjördur in the West Fjords, 2016 won a Bronze Award in the 2021 Epson International Pano Awards. Truly a scene that was both exhilarating--double rainbows across the fjord--with the colors of a golden "hour" that lasted many hours. According to the new friends we met in the town, they prefer to soak in a hot tub to watch!
The nineteenth image, "Pulse of a Storm," captured at Circle Beach, Southampton, New York this past summer won Honorable Mentions in 2020 Neutral Density International Photography Awards, Category: Nature, Seascapes/Waterscapes, the Monochrome Photography Awards 2020, Category: Amature Nature and 2021 Monovisions Photography Awards, International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Single, Nature and Wildlife.
The twentieth photograph, "Black Bird Over the Bay" created in 2020 with my iPhone 11 won Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2021, Category: Special, Smartphone Photography.
The last five images were photographed during the first few months of the international pandemic in 2020. My partner and I were walking home in Prospect Park from a Juneteenth celebration at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York and a sax player treated us to heartfelt jazz. "Sax on Juneteenth"was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2020 Black and White Spider Awards, Category, Portrait. "Drumbeat of Juneteenth 2020" created during the 2020 Juneteenth celebration at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York won two awards: 2021 Monovisions Photography Awards, International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Single, Photojournalism and Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2021, Category: Event, Social Cause.
The last three images, are part of a nine-image series, which won three awards as a series, "7pm Appreciation of Frontline Heroes in Brooklyn, NY": 3rd Place in the International Photography Awards 2020, Category: Event, Social Cause; Honorable Mention in the 2020 Monovisions Photography Awards International Black and White Photo Contest, Category: Series, People and Honorable Mention in the PX3 2020 (Prix De La Photographie Paris), Category: Street Photography, Special. These images are especially important to me. The first image of the series, entitled "Hope and Despair," was awarded a single-image Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2020, Category: People, Portrait and Honorable Mention in the 2020 Black and White Spider Awards, Category, Photojournalism. It captures a healthcare worker, who came out right at 7pm and, wearing all of their PPE just looked up and reached for the sky as one colleague put a comforting hand on their shoulder. The second, "Difficult Day", is of a woman (I met Angela a few weeks later), who clearly had a difficult day. I was especially touched by this image. It was awarded a single-image Honorable Mention in the 2020 Black and White Spider Awards, Category, Photojournalism. The third, "Gracias," was a of celebration of the healthcare workers with the local fire fighters in mid-April 2020. I went back a few weeks later and gifted a 24" x 16" fine print of an image, "7pm Appreciation", reflecting how much the neighborhood appreciates the heroic work everyone in hospitals in Brooklyn and throughout the world is doing to save lives threatened by the global pandemic. They were risking their lives every day; all we can do is show our appreciation and respect for what they do. In 2021, I gifted the entire series to the hospital workers at New York Presbyterian.
***I encourage all of those interested to leave comments/posts on my blog page.