I have been a photographer for over four decades. I was weaned as a California West Coast landscape photographer, with influences that include Ansel Adams, Brett Weston, Wynn Bullock, Morley Baer, and Al Weber – all outstanding photographers and great people. But I have evolved from my roots. A more recent trend in my work has been synthetic exploration. Its genesis is in great narratives of different cultures and a free-minded interest in a combination of social systems and cultural diversity. Add a strong dose of the Gnostic gospels and a commitment to the exploration of entropy – eclectic influences, to say the least. But out of it comes the work.
When I photograph, there are times when I witness and compose that singular and elusive instant when content, time, and light conspire to reveal to me events of the real world. I attempt to make some significant statement about what I am witnessing and the reasoning behind its existence. This is the analysis.
And there are other times when I see pieces of stories, or even a full story line lying dormant. These are unthreaded parts that will go through a process out of which a narrative and itsmeaning become ever more obvious. This is synthesis.
The digital expansion of photography allows both sensitivities together to reveal who I am as a photographer. The beauty of all of this is that I work without restriction – with both parts of my psyche at play. —Paul Schranz
